LoZ: The Golden Pendant
by ZeldaMoogle
Summary: The Hero faces an evil he doesn't know and cannot defeat himself. The Heroine doesn't know who she is or what to do. And beneath everything, there's more than first meets the eye... First of the main Immortals Cycle tales; LinkOC. Chap 11 posted!
1. Initium

_**Legend of Zelda: **__**The Golden Pendant**_

_If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world._

~CS Lewis

* * *

**Chapter 1: **_**Initium**_

Tanya's eyes flicked about the darkening forest warily. Late November leaves crunched beneath her boots as she carefully picked her way along the deer trail, pausing occasionally to listen. Every nerve was alert to her environment, straining to hear and see what was making those odd sounds.

She estimated it had started up around fifteen minutes ago, as she alighted from her tree stand—a low snuffling and the shuffling of hooved feet. At first she had perked up and readied her compound bow, thinking a deer was nearby. After a few minutes spent analyzing the activity, though, she perplexedly decided it wasn't a deer; it made far too much noise, for one, and the snuffling was more…pig-like.

Venison wouldn't be on the menu tonight.

Tanya didn't stick around much longer after deciding that. Those strange sounds had moved closer in the time she stopped to deliberate. And, if her excellent hearing wasn't deceiving her, there was more than one of…whatever it was, out there.

The hunter moved quickly now, more than eager to get home as soon as possible. She didn't like that she was leaving earlier than usual—sunset was prime hunting time—but prey had been scarce all day, anyway. Besides that, she'd rather not run into the creatures making those noises and definitely following her now.

Stepping into the field adjoining the woodland plot had never felt so good. As soon as she slid her bow into its case and slung that over her back again, she picked up a dog-trot along the path home. To her relief, the sound of hooves on gravel did not follow her down the back road.

Tanya shook her head at herself as she settled into the familiar rhythm of jogging. _'Why would they—whatever 'they' _are_—be following me? They're probably just some pigs that got loose and strayed from one of the nearby farms._

'_So then why do I keep wanting to look over my shoulder every two strides?'_

Scowling and increasing her pace, Tanya forcefully dropped those useless thoughts. She concentrated simply on running, reaching for the next stride as the wind sang in her lungs. _This_ was her favorite thing to do after sitting in a cold tree-stand the entirety of a Fall day. Running loosened her muscles and freed her spirit to fly…metaphorically speaking. Sometimes she felt she could do it all day, and had even imagined, when younger, that she was the famous Athenian runner Phidippidies.

Her nostalgic trip into her childhood memories and the physical journey home ended with the sun's light. Tanya gratefully slowed her pace to a relaxed walk up the driveway, forcing her burning lungs to slowly drink in the oxygen it pleaded for. By the time she climbed the stairs to the front porch, the girl had almost completely recovered from the mile-and-a-half run.

Her parents—Amy and Jonathan Grayle—looked up with not a little surprise as she walked into the foyer. Her mother quickly returned to the unfinished meal simmering on the stove; Jonathan set aside the photography journal in his hand temporarily.

"You're back early," he commented as she tapped the dirt off her shoes.

"I didn't see a thing," Tanya explained, squatting to unlace her boots. "Figured I'd cut my losses."

He shuffled some low-quality prints over the tabletop, not looking up at her when he spoke next. "Mat said the prey's not running so well lately. He thinks it's either because of the hard winter we had last year, or the coyotes getting desperate."

Tanya shrugged, abandoning the conversation to retreat to her room. She heard her mother say, "Mary did see a coyote just a few days ago…" before the door shut behind her and muted the sound.

'_I don't think it's coyotes, Amy,'_ she mused, unslinging her quiver and bow from her shoulders. Settling them on their designated pegs in one wall—next to the horn bow she took when riding and her first longbow—the girl shed her excess hunting clothes and settled down with her sketch book.

Before continuing her most-recent drawing, she slowly thumbed through the pages, smiling a little at each favorite she came across. Subject matter varied in a rather amusing fashion that her classmates never failed to point out; one page could be filled with puppies and kittens while the next depicted a battle freeze-frame of epic proportions. At least one swordsman, whose basic characteristics never varied, always appeared in the latter sketches.

She paused a few moments longer than the rest on the most recent page, a half-shaded portrait of one of her favorite characters, before picking up her pencil. The implement carefully traced the heavy line of the jawbone, filling some preliminary shading under the chin, then made some minor corrections to his angled eyebrows. Trading the pencil for a paper stub, she carefully blended the strokes denoting light irises to give them the necessary sheen.

Amy's voice echoed up the stairwell just as Tanya finished darkening the shadows in her subject's blond hair. "Coming!" she shouted back. An expert flick of the wrist closed her sketchbook; after stowing it and her pencils on her bedside table's shelf, the girl hurried out and down the stairs into the kitchen.

Her mother was just setting a bowl of potatoes on the table when Tanya came into view. Jonathan gently pushed his pictures to one side as the women sat for dinner. As usual, the first few bites were taken in silence except for the clink and scrape of glasses and silverware, respectively.

Jonathan was the first to break the silence. "Have you seen any coyotes on your hunts lately, Tanya?"

The girl paused and lowered her fork back to her plate, the morsel on it uneaten. After a moment of thought, she frowned and said, "No, not really… Come to think of it, I haven't seen many animals—predator _or_ prey—at all this season."

Her father and mother exchanged glances, but Tanya was staring at her plate so missed the looks. Those hoofbeats she'd heard when leaving the woods today… She was sure they had something to do with the forest animals' unusual timidity.

"John…" she started slowly. The hesitance in her voice turned both her parents' gazes to her. "Have you…ever heard something that makes…" She frowned in confusion, trying to find the words to describe the noise she'd heard earlier. "It's…like a—a _snuffing_ sound, like a dog sniffing around, but louder and…rougher?"

"Hm…" He leaned back in his chair, crossing one arm over his chest and resting his chin in the cup of his other hand thoughtfully. "Can you relate it to an animal you already know?"

Her food almost forgotten, Tanya closed her eyes to dredge up the memory of that sound. Her brow creased deeply as she thought. "It was…almost like a pig, I guess," she said, opening her eyes again with no little confusion still in them. "And a really big one."

He sighed and drummed his fingers on the table. "The only thing I can think of that comes close is a wild boar. But coniferous forest and mountains aren't where they normally roam, and most populations that live further down the mountain have, I'm sure, been killed off since civilization came out here to stay."

The ambiance grew quiet again, each of the family members left to their own thoughts. Tanya pushed a forkful of corn kernels around her plate absently, no longer hungry. Something incredibly strange was going on in the woods near her home, but she had no idea what. It bothered her beyond belief.

At last, when it seemed the silence would become unbearable, Amy cleared her throat. "Tanya, we're going to be away all day tomorrow."

She leaned back against her chair and settled confused green eyes on her mother. The woman continued, "There's a convention coming to Denver tomorrow, and John and I wanted to put up some photography there."

"We know you're not as…enthusiastic as we are about photography," John added. "And you're plenty old enough to take care of yourself for a day."

Tanya resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at them, instead loosely crossing her arms. "You're going to let me stay here?" she asked in a clarifying tone.

"As long as you don't cross the property boundaries if you go riding," her father said, also crossing his arms.

She subdued the full grin growing on her face. When the property boundaries encompassed thirty acres, it wasn't that hard to stay on the property. "No problem."

—

Tanya had been riding by herself for almost as long as she could remember, and been given permission to ride whenever she wanted since she was thirteen. She had never had an accident—though there _had_ been some close calls—and enjoyed the solitude it offered when she was troubled.

Today's ride hadn't given her the latter yet.

Katara had pranced anxiously beneath her the moment they left the stable area, chewing on the bit and flicking her ears erratically. Not wanting to lose control, Tanya decided to delay the usual gallop she liked to have as soon as they were on the trail, instead keeping the dark roan to a high-stepping trot.

Some five minutes into the woods, the rider reined in her horse. Both paused and stood still, listening, the back and forth movement of the mare's ears the only sign of life from the pair. Tanya glanced warily around the forest, straining to hear the odd snuffling that had caused her to stop.

The same sound she'd heard yesterday.

After a time of restless waiting, Katara grew impatient and pawed the dirt trail. Tanya pulled the horse's head up to stop her and patted the dark-haired neck soothingly, despite her own growing unease. "Easy, Kat." She turned the mount so they were facing the opposite direct—toward home. "C'mon; let's go back."

Katara squealed suddenly, shying to one side and half-rearing in fright. Tanya yelled and tried to throw her weight forward to bring the mare down on all fours, but found herself rolling off her steed's side. She hit the ground hard, jarring the breath from her. Only instinct saved her from Katara's flailing hooves, as she rolled away and scrambled to her feet.

Her pulse pounded in her ears as the girl quickly surveyed the trail, which had exploded into action and sound. Huge boar-like creatures as tall as Katara had crashed from the undergrowth onto the path, wielding spears as long as Tanya was tall. Three stood around the crazed horse, trying to control it, while two others approached her from each side.

She kept telling herself she should run—move—_anything_ to get away from them—but her mind seemed to have shut down momentarily, and her legs did nothing to obey her commands. The one on her left stepped one pace within reach of that amazingly sharp spearhead…

Tanya leapt back, eyes wide, as a light bay horse plowed past her. The monster fell to the ground, howling in pain and clutching a slice in its shoulder. Her head swiveled to the right as its fellow gurgled and tumbled backward, its throat open to the air.

As the horse wheeled to make a second pass, this time at Katara's tormentors, Tanya could finally see its rider. The hood of his dark cloak had fallen back onto his shoulders, revealing a head of messy blond hair. He held a long silver blade in his left hand, now darkened with blood, and her expert eye caught sight of a quiver of arrows slung on his shoulder.

That was about all she could make out in the flurry of the fight and the short time she had to watch him. Katara came charging up to her, eyes rolling in fear as she escaped the boars that had encircled her. Taking a moment to calm the panicky mare, Tanya climbed back into the saddle and spun the mare to face down the path again.

Their unnamed rescuer took another slice at a monster attempting to poke him with its lance, wheeling his own mount around. "Follow me!"

Tanya didn't need to be told twice; following him was a better bet than staying _here_. Nevertheless, the sense of unease she'd felt—now something a little less than panic—never dwindled, even with the explosion of adrenaline now surging through her.

No sane person would be doing this. No _normal_ person would have been attacked by other-worldly creatures and thrown into wild flight after an armed stranger.

Realizing this, it only took her a few more seconds to make up her mind. Tanya swerved off the main trail onto the first side path she came across, one which she knew would take her to another trail leading straight to her house. It was the only place that came to mind as safe enough for her to escape the situation entirely.

Entering the clearing around the house, however, proved her horribly wrong.

Tanya reined in Katara so sharply that the mare snorted in protest, but she hardly heard it. The sight of five enormous, armored creatures she vaguely recognized paralyzed her momentarily. As the first of the seven-foot-tall behemoths turned to face her, Katara reacted for her and wheeled back into the safety of the trees.

By the time they reached the main trail again, Tanya had regained her wits enough to squash the flames of true panic threatening to ignite in her chest. She pulled her horse to a stop again when the mounted warrior who had rescued her crashed through the brush along the path to her left.

One last slice felled the monster chasing him, and he scanned the area before settling his gaze on her.

Under the piercing blue eyes, Tanya could hardly think. "T-the house…"

He simply nodded and trotted his horse toward her. "I knew they'd have it surrounded." He paused a yard or two in front of her. "I told you to stay with me for a reason."

Regaining her composure, she scowled at his reprimanding tone. She opened her mouth to snarl a retort only to be interrupted by the ear-splitting bellow of a strange horn.

The rider snapped out what sounded like a curse word and spun his mare toward a pencil-thin track through the trees in front of Tanya. "No time to talk; we have to get them off our tails before I can properly explain." He cast a backward glance over his shoulder. "And this time _try_ to stay with me."

Despite the urge to howl in frustration and anger, Tanya gritted her teeth and kicked Katara after the mysterious rider.

* * *

**A/N:** ...How many times have I done this, now? *counts* Ohright. 3? No, 4... Ah, well. What does it matter? There's some trivia for you, new readers, now go have fun and read the rest that's posted to-date (6/30/11). Don't kill me if/when you hit a cliffhanger, though, because summer is about to get no-writing-possible-busy shortly, and new stuff isn't likely to be posted until end of July.

Old readers! Welcome back, and please do take the time to read through the chapters again, because some stuff has changed pretty dramatically and it crosses ALL the current chapters. O_O No joke. (Though the first two chapters have the most-in fact, they're TOTALLY rewritten, as you can tell by this chappie...)

So, how did this re-re-editing come about? Please give a round of applause to a friend who goes by the name of Rosey for all the hours she spent listening to me rant about the plot and character relationships and other loopholes and quirks about this story that were causing me grief...and then going beyond that to give suggestions and be the overall best sounding board a writer could ask for. So I dedicate this whole dad-gummed thing to Rosey: _Thank-you-Thank-you-Thank-you-Thank-you-Thank-you_ *gasps* _Thank You!_ (And, just for you: _-flying-leap-pounce-tackle-glomp-huggle-hugs-_ =D)

~Zel


	2. Locum Transire

Standard disclaimers: Nintendo owns Link. Not me. And every other Zelda thing under the sun. My Muse just likes playing in Hyrule... *sighs*

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**Chapter 2: _Locum Transire_**

The horn sounded again, closer this time, as Tanya and the warrior fled through the forest trails. A second and third horn soon echoed it, the clashing notes ringing through the trees like the baying of monstrous hounds. Katara snorted heavily with each pounding stride, a sound of mixed exertion and fear.

Over the deafening noise of her racing heart, Tanya forced herself to really _think_ about what was going on. Her mind strayed back to the armored monsters surrounding her house, then the boars that had first attacked her. She was sure those were the things she'd heard while hunting yesterday; but that wasn't even the creepiest part—

She recognized _both_ types of monsters.

She even thought she had a fairly educated guess as to who had rescued her.

_'This is so wrong this is so wrong this is so wrong—'_

Her one-track mind derailed momentarily when Katara abruptly changed direction, following the other horse onto a wider path. Without any encouragement from her rider, the mare lengthened her stride into a reaching gallop, quickly closing the gap that had formed between her and the bay. Behind them came more hoof beats, barely audible over Katara's hooves.

If she was right about the boars, then those hoof beats could only be one thing.

_'Okay, I'm officially crazy,'_ she lamented, scowling rather than giving into the urge to break down into useless, panicked babble. _'Video game characters can NOT be showing up in my backyard!'_

Except they were.

Needing an outlet for her mounting anger, Tanya kicked Katara ahead of the other horse and its mysterious rider, crowding them toward the side of the path until his mare was forced to stop or run into the trees.

Green eyes pierced blue as Tanya narrowed a lethal glare at the swordsman. "Okay, hold up. I'm not going _any_ further until you explain exactly what the hell is going on here."

Despite her efforts to sound angry and affronted, she was sure a little of the panic she was feeling had crept into her tone.

The man—no more than a boy, she suddenly realized as she withstood his equally-lethal and irritated glare—scowled right back at her. "You were ambushed," he explained in a clipped tone that said _'as if it weren't obvious enough _already_.'_ Before she could make a sarcastic retort, his horse pushed her way past Katara. "We need to get out of here _now_."

Rolling her eyes at his blatant avoidance of her question, Tanya growled, "No _duh_, Sherlock. Mind telling me _where_ we're going? Because that would help my nerves a _lot_ instead of running blindly all over Hell and creation."

His simple answer, despite her earlier suspicions, caught her off-guard: "Hyrule."

Tanya's jaw dropped as she took a double-take, blinking incredulously at him. By the time she regained her senses, he had trotted a ways down the path, forcing her to move Katara into a canter to catch up. "_WHAT_? Are you _crazy_ or something? There's no such thing—"

The bone-chilling howl of a wolf echoed through the darkening trees, cutting her tirade short. Katara crowded up against Epona nervously, wickering in fear. The bay mare snorted and laid her ears back, warning the younger horse away from her as if to say _'It's just a Wolfos, don't be stupid about it.'_

"More running, less talking," Link snapped, kicking Epona into a gallop once more. Katara immediately leaped after her, her herding instinct almost overruling any training Tanya had ever given her.

Muttering about stupid animals and impossible situations, the rider nevertheless gave Katara her head and looped the end of her reins around the saddle horn to prevent them from falling. She trusted her horse to keep following Epona; meanwhile, she needed to arm herself.

_'Thank God I adapted this saddle to carry a bow,'_ she thought as she snapped open the flap holding her horn bow in place behind the saddle.

Just as her fingers wrapped around an arrow from the quiver sewn into the saddle pad in front of her left knee, Katara threw her weight back onto her haunches. Epona neighed shrilly—angrily—and rose up on her hind legs to paw the creature which had blocked their path. Tanya nearly slid backward off Katara's saddle, clutching at her mane to stay on, as the blue roan did the same.

Paired, lupine snarls from in front and behind her told her what monster had caught up with them.

As the two horses dropped back to earth, Link's sword flashed out at the lead Wolfos. It yelped in pain as the blow connected with its shoulder, then howled as it leapt at him with claws extended. It was only an instinctive reaction that allowed Tanya to quickly nock and release her arrow, puncturing the creature's neck at the joining of ear and jaw.

"Run!" Link yelled, pushing the monstrous wolf off his arm and shoulder. Epona bellowed angrily as the rear Wolfos swiped a paw across her rump; Link quickly twisted and swung the Master Sword across its snout, drawing an angry red streak and an agonized yowl from it.

Before Tanya could ask where, or retort she'd rather fight with him, Katara bolted from the wolf's attack. It was almost all she could do to keep her balance and snatch up the reins with one hand with her bow in the other, trying to get her mount under control again. By the time she could bring the horse's pace down to something less than a full-out sprint, they had left Link far behind.

The girl muttered a nasty curse as she finally reined Katara in to a fast walk. "_Now_ what?" she muttered, half to herself and half to her horse. "Where the hell does he expect me to _go_ if I can't go home and he's not here to get me out of this mess?" Blinking, and realizing what she had just said, Tanya slapped a hand to her forehead. "_Idiot_! I don't need _him_ to "save" me. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Hmph."

Katara snorted as if in agreement. A brief smile passed over Tanya's face, and she patted the mare's sweaty neck affectionately. "I know, I know. I'll figure something out. Just gimme a sec to figure out where we—are… What the hell?"

If she had been asked to describe the…_thing_ she was seeing now, she would have told the person who asked to give her a day or two to figure out exactly _how_ to describe it. Its shape was both nebulous and solid at once, both floating and grounded, opaque and translucent. Images flickered across its surface, vague flashes of things lurking beyond its murky mantle; yet at the same time Tanya could see past it to the trees beyond.

And it had her mesmerized at first glance.

Something called to her, a muffled voice echoing across a long distance. If she closed her eyes, she could almost catch snatches of emotions and events beyond the curtain separating her from what lay behind it. It drew her forward, closer, wondering what it was she was seeing…

Tanya gasped as her hand touched something freezing cold, eyes flying open to find herself standing directly in front of the shimmering almost-mirage. Her eyes widened as she realized her fingers had dipped beneath the liquid-like surface of the mirage. Looking down, she could see Katara, too, had practically vanished, up to her shoulders within the not-water.

Just before panic could snake its hand around her throat, a whinny broke the spell that had fallen over her. Tanya twisted around on Katara's saddle to see Epona rounding the corner, fleeing something that hadn't yet come into view but made the earth shake with its drumming hooves.

"Go, Tanya!" Link yelled, expertly reining in his mare to turn and face the coming threat. "I'll be right behind you!"

Tanya opened her mouth to demand how he knew her name and stubbornly retort she wasn't going anywhere, but Katara wasn't having any of that. Before she could turn the horse around, she had moved completely into the mirage—

And vanished through it.

The images she had briefly caught passing across the pool's surface assaulted her in full force the moment she passed into them. She opened her mouth to scream but found she couldn't move, paralyzed at the most basic level by the electric pain shooting through her body. It were as if a hundred thousand tiny wasps had stung every inch of her body and the welts shot fire through her nerves before feeling finally returned.

When it did, though, the first thing she felt was a rough collision with coarse, rocky ground. A faint whinny tried to pierce the fog surrounding her, but Tanya hardly noticed it over the thudding of her heart in her ears and the sensation of wanting to empty her stomach. Choking on her own breath, she struggled to her knees; a sudden pang and skip in the beat of her heart drove her to the ground again, hands tangling in the red hair that had escaped its braid. Pulsing replaced the initial pang, shaking her whole body until she couldn't fight it anymore.

Unable to retain her grasp on consciousness, Tanya finally blacked out.

—

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

Slowly, her awareness returned thanks to something wet steadily plinking atop her nose. She automatically wrinkled it in annoyance, gradually gathering the strength to lift the lids over her eyes. Now that she was somewhat more focused than the sleepy state she had been in seconds ago, she faintly noted that her nose seemed farther away from her eyes than usual. And had she ever really been so big as she now felt?

Her vision flickered in and out over the blurry, drab-colored image forming before her eyes. Irately she forced them open, though her mind was still too weary to actually process what she saw.

A bizarre kind of sigh from somewhere to her right lifted her up out of her groggy state a little more. She blinked again, this time making an effort to examine her surroundings. Thick, low clouds hugged the mountainous horizon beyond the long, distant mouth of the shallow ravine in which she lay. Rain fell in a misty haze around her, staining the dusty earth a deep mahogany brown and in some places creating miniature streams. An air of despair and haunted hopelessness lay over everything; intermittent, mournful howls that made her skin crawl drifted through the oppressive atmosphere.

For a while Tanya lay where she was, lifting the fog of weariness from her mind piece by piece. As this progressed she steadily became more aware of the fact that something seemed wrong with her body. The girl had _definitely_ never been as large as she was now, nor was she of an exceptional height; in fact, she had just barely reached average human height before. Now, though, she realized that the ravine in which she lay wasn't as shallow as she had first thought; her exaggeratedly large torso simply made it look smaller and narrower than it really was. Then there was the fact that she felt a whole lot longer than she last remembered, and there was more weight atop her back as well.

Feeling somewhat stronger after her unplanned nap, she compelled her head to move from its uncomfortable sideways position on the canyon floor and turn to her right. A glint of silver flashed in her peripheral vision as she looked up and spotted Katara pressed against the rocky wall, head down and her entire body trembling. The horse's hurt and fear emanated off her in waves, slicing Tanya's heart almost as if she were feeling it herself.

She opened her mouth to offer soothing words to the horse, but instead a hissing scrape emerged from her vocal chords. Startled, she snapped her jaw shut so quickly that her upper teeth sliced into her lower lip; the acrid taste of blood tricked into her mouth as she hissed in pain. Growling in frustration—a sound which came out much louder than it should have—Tanya attempted to get her arms and legs properly under herself to stand…

Only to find she had arms no more, and her legs were a _lot_ different.

A breathy gasp passed her mouth as she craned her neck around at various angles to take in her new form, eyes wide with shock. As soon as the shock had passed, panic replaced it. _'Ohnononononononnonono, this is not right, not good, what happened, where am I—_

_'Why am I a _dragon_?'_

_"T-Tanya, w-what happened?"_

A soft nicker of fear brought her attention back to Katara, who was still trembling but had lifted her head to look at Tanya. The girl-turned-dragon once more made an effort to stand, this time managing to figure out how her joints bent enough to stand, splay-legged but not in immediate danger of falling over.

_'Is this how foals feel when they first stand?'_ she grumbled to herself.

_"Tanya, what's going on?"_

She blinked and frowned, perplexed. '_And who _is _that?'_

_"Tanya, it's me! _Please_, tell me what happened!"_

_"Katara?"_ Tanya questioned disbelievingly, looking over at the mare. _"You can talk?"_

The horse's trembling subsided slightly, just enough for her to shake out her mane. "I… You've, just—never been able to hear, before," she explained almost apologetically.

More to keep herself from delving into panic again upon hearing of such a possibility, Tanya decided to answer Katara's question. _"To be honest, Kat…I have very little idea what's going on. Sorry."_

"It seems to me, dragon, that you need a little help, don't you?"

Tanya nearly face-planted when her head whipped around to look at the source of the new voice, every muscle braced to fight or fly—although she wasn't certain she could do either, figuratively or literally in the latter's case. Her eyes went wide when they found who—or _what_—had spoken.

_"What the hell are_ you_?"_ she demanded. Awe tinged the rough words, despite herself—

The impish creature was _floating_ of its own power.

She—it was obviously female—crossed her arms huffily and tutted, shaking her head disappointedly. "Too bad for you. If you were nice, I was planning on helping you…" She sighed. "But I suppose if you're going to insist on being so rude…"

Realizing exactly how caustic she had sounded, Tanya hurriedly backpedaled. _"I-I'm sososososo sorry! I didn't mean it—you just caught me off-guard and I have no idea what's going on or who's friend or foe and—"_

The imp laughed loudly at the dragon's words and chastised mannerisms; she had turned to face the newcomer as quickly as her wobbly, unfamiliar limbs would allow, nearly tripping over herself yet again. "Relax, dragon. I'm not going to hurt you." She eyed Tanya bemusedly as the dragon awkwardly set her haunches down and wrapped her long tail around her forepaws. "Not that it would be very hard in _your_ condition…"

Tanya snorted indignantly. _"One, I'm sure I could at least do_ something _if it came to fighting,"_ she growled. _"Two, I _have _a name. It's Tanya."_

"Th' name's Midna," the imp returned casually, inspecting her long nails. Tanya eyed the glowing markings on her arms warily, sure they were for more than decoration. "And you, _Tanya_, have wandered into the Twilight Realm."

Tanya blinked. _"Twilight Realm…?"_

Midna sighed, her metallic-orange ponytail flapping almost with a life of its own as she floated toward the dragon and setting herself on her feet a few yards away. "Looks like we're in for a bit of a history lesson, aren't we?" she muttered just loud enough for Tanya to hear.

Biting back the urge to make a sarcastic retort, Tanya shuffled her paws impatiently. The imp cleared her throat before starting, settling herself cross-legged on a drier patch of canyon floor. "The Twilight, essentially, is an area of perpetual Twilight—how imaginative!—which turns those who live in it into either spirits, Beasts, or—in your case—an animal. While I'm not exactly sure why _you_, of all people, are an animal and not a spirit, I'm pretty certain if you leave the Curtain you'll turn back to your regular form."

The fanged grin she flashed at the dragon made her heart sink. "It's getting out that's the trouble, though. See, the Twilight doesn't give up its spirits without a fight—and if you lose, you become a Shadow Beast."

_"Do I even want to know?"_ Tanya asked, dreading the answer.

Midna moved to reply, but paused inexplicably. At the dragon's confused glance, she ordered, "Listen."

Tanya closed her eyes, straining her ears to pay attention to activity beyond the cliffs to either side. She frowned upon hearing the clank of armor and sounds of a weak struggle.

"Find somewhere to hide," Midna snapped, ducking behind the dragon. She twisted her head to ask how the imp expected a creature of her current size to hide, but the words died half-formed upon seeing that Midna had vanished. "Whe—"

"Hide, idiot!" Midna's voice hissed.

Not wasting the time to mutter to herself about the futility of hiding—the footsteps were getting closer—Tanya shuffled over to Katara and a nearby boulder. Hunkering down behind it as best she could, she tucked her tail and wings in tightly and hoped beyond hope no one—or thing—saw her.

She and Katara waited tensely in their hideaway, barely daring to breathe in order to hear what was going on. Agonizingly slow seconds passed by as they listened to the chattering and growling now plainly audible beyond the rock concealing the horse and dragon. Unable to resist seeing what was going on, Tanya slowly inched her head toward the top of the boulder.

Her eyes widened in shock at what she saw.

Four of the same creatures she'd seen surrounding her house—_'Darknuts,'_ she reminded herself—were marching down the path in a square around something she couldn't yet see. Odd-colored creatures she thought resembled Bokoblins lead the way, their ranks interspersed by dark-bodied Tektites. She narrowed her eyes at them, contemplating the red runes pulsing along their flesh. Those looked oddly like Midna's markings…

"What are you _doing_?"

_"Figuring out what the hell we've gotten into,"_ Tanya muttered back at the imp without taking her eyes off the monsters. They were less than twenty yards away now…

"Well, then, keep your head down! If they spot you—"

The dragon didn't hear anything else Midna said; she was too busy drowning in the thousands of memories, thoughts, and emotions not her own that had suddenly flooded her mind. Thousands of faces surrounded her, then were washed away by wave after wave of monsters. Flashes of agony—now dread—now sorrow—now loneliness—ripped through her, drawing a strangled half-cry, half-roar from her throat.

And then, just as suddenly as they appeared, they raced away from her into the confines of a small pool of liquid crystal in the back of her mind, beside the smaller pool of midnight-blue that had already formed.

_"Tanya?"_

She knew that voice.

_"Link?"_ she said, eyes flying open in shock.

Her surprise upon realizing that those "pools" in the back of her mind were others whom she could speak or had spoken to telepathically was quickly squashed upon seeing what had happened while she was distracted.


	3. In Planities Umbrae

**Chapter 3: **_**In Planities Umbrae**_

Tanya could hardly tell what was going on when she opened her eyes. The ravine had erupted into chaos from her roar, which had given away her presence. If it weren't for Katara and Midna, she was sure to have been wounded or captured during her lapse of attention. The two had teamed up to fight off the Tektites and Bokoblins threatening to swarm them, Katara using her hooves to great effect against the bug-like monsters while Midna…

She did a double take. The imp's hair had turned into a _hand_.

A wolf's yelp shook her out of her immobility. She reared up and placed her front paws on the boulder to her left, swinging her head around to survey the scene of battle for the wolf. A quick flash of four Darknuts surrounding her—no, him—directed her search.

"_A little help would be appreciated,"_ Link growled, voice tense with effort and concentration.

Once she had hauled herself over the boulder, a feat in and of itself, Tanya aimed for the nearest Tektite before launching from her perch onto it. As soon as she heard and felt its frail exoskeleton break under her weight with a satisfying _crunch_, she moved for the closest Darknut.

Sadly, it was ready for her by the time she reached it, weaving a little drunkenly on her unsteady feet. It easily dodged her first lunge, a bite for the hand holding one of four chains attached to Link's legs. Anger pulsed through her as it almost carelessly batted her nose to the side—and _laughed_. Granted, it was a tinny, grating laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.

Snarling, Tanya lashed out with a slightly steadier paw, this time connecting with a knee. The creature folded over mid-laugh; emboldened, the dragon immediately went for the exposed back of its neck with the same precision she had in archery. The acrid tang of blood gushed over her tongue, the tide growing thicker as her victim's thrashings slowly died.

A sharp slap against her hip returned her attention to the fight. She shook the Darknut off her fangs as a blur of fur bolted past her, lunging for the second Darknut. Link clamped his jaws on its throat as the behemoth clanged to the ground, four legs spread wide over its chest to keep from being thrown as it struggled.

Up to his teeth in that monster, the wolf was left defenseless against the third Darknut, its sword poised to come down edge-first on his head. Forgoing an attempt to warn Link, the dragon simply gathered strength in her hindquarters to make a leap that cleared both him and the fallen monster and threw her claws-first into the offending sword-wielder. A quick flick of her claw through the gap between its helm and breastplate quickly put it out of the fight.

Link's pained yelp and the succeeding _thump_ of something fuzzy rolling into her leg sent her head snapping toward the source of the attack. The fourth Darknut had flanked them while they contended with the other two and now stood with a wide black shield held before it. Its huge broadsword glimmered darkly; the half-light of the Twilight reflected in the prismatic drops of Link's blood on its blade, as if grinning in anticipation of feeding on its opponent again.

But it _was_ a two-on-one match.

"_You thinking what I'm thinking?"_ Tanya questioned Link, not turning from the immobile monster before them.

The wolf beside her huffed, giving her a crooked lupine grin. _"Ready when you are."_

Without another word, the pair simultaneously lunged at the Darknut. Tanya reached it first, striking its shield from its grasp with a paw and toppling it over with her snout. Link leapt atop it then, sinking his strong jaws into its throat and jerking its neck sideways. Thick black blood sprayed from the wound, and the monster fell limp.

Certain that the largest threats had been taken care of, Link and Tanya turned to see how Midna and Katara were faring. Midna finished off the last of the Bokoblins with a lazy flick of her hair-hand, snapping its neck. Two Tektites became bug pulp under Katara's hooves, and then the ravine fell silent.

With the disappearance of danger, all the adrenaline that had steadied Tanya's movements evaporated. Without any warning her legs gave way, and the dragon fell to her knees. Blinking away the sudden weariness and trying to ignore her shaking body, she looked over at Link as he more gracefully sat. He lifted a paw to nose the chain hanging from it, snorting in irritation when he couldn't see a way to get it off.

"_Just what I needed—a couple hunks of metal hanging from my limbs to let everyone know I'm coming,"_ he grumbled, narrowing his eyes at the offending object.

Tanya eyed the dark red gash along his left shoulder. _"I'd be worrying more about _that_, if I were you,"_ she countered, leaning over to sniff at the wound. She wrinkled her nose at the iron-like scent of blood and withdrew her head.

Link huffed and twisted his head around to lick the damp fur. _"It'll heal."_

They both looked up as Katara approached, Midna on her back. "I'm sure it will, but if it doesn't close or get bandaged before we cross the Twilight, I can't guarantee you won't keep it when you shift back."

Pausing in mid-lick, the wolf shifted his gaze to the curious creature atop the horse. _"And who, exactly, are _you_?"_

Midna flashed him her pointy-toothed grin. "Midna, at your service! Now how about you introduce your canine friend to me, dragon?"

Tanya curled a corner of her lip in a half-snarl. Link snorted and replied, _"I am Link, and I can speak for myself."_

The imp chuckled and shrugged off the indignant comment. "Well, _Link_, I think the dragon has a point—you should be worrying about that scratch if you want to get out of the Twilight anytime soon."

As if to punctuate her suggestion, a Wolfos howled somewhere in the distance. Another answered it from farther away, starting a chain of wolf-calls that echoed across the plain.

"_Well,"_ Link said slowly, _"I'm thinking we'd better get moving, then. We can figure it out when we reach the boundary."_

With that, he got his hind end under him and stood, shaking out his thick coat. _"Let's go."_

—

"That's_ the boundary?"_ Tanya exclaimed, eyes wide and head craned back to stare upward. A huge—_curtain_ was the best word she could think of to describe it—shimmered from horizon to horizon and from ground level stretching into the sky. She flicked her wings impatiently, wondering how high it rose and itching to test her wings, but realized that the group had more important matters to attend to.

The dragon swung her head down to watch Link as he slinked toward the orange- and purple-tinged boundary, sniffing warily at it. Satisfied that he could get near it without negative effects, he slid a paw forward to test the misty-looking wall.

As soon as the limb pushed against the barrier, however, the wolf yipped in surprise and swiftly drew it back. The wall rippled like water disturbed by a stone for a few moments before settling back into its usual, almost hypnotic waving motion.

"_Well _that_ was interesting,"_ Link commented with a huff, lying down heavily.

"_What happened?"_ Tanya asked, sitting on her haunches and lashing her tail worriedly.

The wolf gave her the distinct impression of a perplexed frown. _"Something…fought me—fought my mind, like it was trying to keep me in."_ He shuddered the tiniest bit. _"Or possess me."_

"That's the Twilight for ya," Midna cut in, leaning against Link's side. She lazily studied her nails as she explained, "It doesn't like giving up its prisoners. You should be strong enough to overcome it, though, what with your Triforce and all protecting you."

Link's ears pricked at that comment; if Tanya had had some, they would have, too. Both beasts drilled their stares into Midna's head, though she didn't notice because she was still scrutinizing her hand. When she did glance up, she raised an eyebrow nonchalantly. "What? You couldn't figure that out, Mr. Important Hero?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and half-snarled. Midna just laughed and retook her customary seat on his back.

Tanya frowned, sorting through the implications of the imp's comment. If Link was protected by the Triforce of Courage, which turned him into a beast, then…why was _she_ a beast? She wasn't even Hylian! How could she—

'_Wait… Maybe that's why. Because I'm not Hylian, the Twilight doesn't know what to do with me,'_ she decided.

All the same, she couldn't shake the feeling that that wasn't quite it. Something wasn't adding up…

She shook her head angrily, dislodging those thoughts. She _wasn't_ Hylian, and that was that! It didn't matter why she was a beast—she was just glad she wasn't a spirit.

Or worse.

Tanya returned her attention to Link, who had stood and was now shaking out his coat. She smirked as she realized he wasn't just shaking—he was getting Midna off him. His indignity at having to play horse to the imp was masked, but not well enough so that she couldn't sense it. She laughed inwardly at the sight of Midna removing herself from her perch and crossing her arms temperamentally; it reminded her of a pouting child.

"Hey! What was that for?" she demanded, one red eye glaring at the wolf below her.

Link glared right back, blue versus red. _"I am _NOT _a horse, thank you very much!"_

She grinned toothily. "No, you're not—you're much more comfortable. Ehe he!"

Growling, the wolf leapt at her, but only snapped his teeth on air as the imp nimbly dodged. "Aaw, is the wittle wolfie angwy?" When Link jumped at her again, she smacked him down with her hair-hand. "Now, if the little wolf would like to _behave_, maybe I can help him with some of his problems—like those chains. How does that sound?"

Though he still glared, Tanya could see that Link was considering Midna's offer. With a sigh he got his feet back under him and sat up, eyeing the imp with a little less animosity. _"Fine. Now how about your end of the deal?"_

A small smile graced Midna's lips, then disappeared as she cupped her hands in front of her and concentrated. After a short moment spent building power, she jerked her hands apart and released the magic. Four tiny sparks of what Tanya would have called black lightning split through the chains at the point closest to Link's manacles. The wolf, startled, leapt back a foot and quickly examined his lightened legs for signs of injury. Seeing none, he looked over his shoulder with respect at the tired imp now resting on his back.

"_Thank you,"_ he said slowly, dipping his head.

Midna waved a hand as if brushing off the thanks. "It was nothing," she grumbled, folding her arms atop Link's furry neck.

"_I don't suppose you can do anything for that slice, too, can you?"_ Tanya queried, nosing the wolf's shoulder and the wound in question. He laid his ears back warningly when the motion irritated the cut, and the dragon pulled back a little.

"Hm, let me think… Uh, no—sorry! Fresh out of healing magic. Come again tomorrow," the imp snapped bitterly.

Link's ears stood up again, and he looked toward Tanya. The girl-turned-dragon got a sinking feeling as she saw the spark in his blue eyes that she decided meant he had an idea.

"_Vanessa once told me that dragon saliva has potent healing powers,"_ he said slowly. _"Think it's worth a try?"_

Realizing what he was asking, Tanya stared uneasily at the direction from which they had come. _"Do we have time?"_ she asked, stalling the inevitable.

He nodded once. _"We haven't run into anything yet, nor are there signs of focused pursuit. It normally works within fifteen minutes on small wounds. Considering your…unique circumstances, though, I think it would probably work faster."_

Tanya frowned and mulled over the proposition. Finally she sighed and swung her head toward his shoulder. _"Alright. It's not like we've got anything to lose by it. Now hold still."_

Link obeyed, locking his knees so as not to be knocked over. Trying to ignore the awkwardness of her situation, the dragon bent her head and flicked her tongue across the oozing gash. Recognizing the metallic tang in her mouth as blood, she wrinkled her nose but continued her ministrations. Soon after—mostly satisfied with her work—she drew back to see what happened.

"_How much do we need?"_ she asked uncertainly, staring at the unchanged wound.

The wolf rolled his shoulder as best he could, testing the joint. _"Well, I can feel it stinging—that's usually a good sign,"_ he said. _"It probably needs more, though; it's not exactly a shallow scratch."_

Nodding, she resigned herself to the task and started licking his damp fur again. Slowly, she realized she could feel the raw skin beneath her tongue changing, becoming more firm and supple. Deciding she had done enough, the dragon stopped licking and stepped back.

The gash, which had once spread in a finger-long slice across the side of his shoulder blade, had closed to a quarter of its original size. Only a thin line of reddish skin remained.

Link sighed with relief, noticeably placing more weight on the leg. _"That's good enough. I can take some potion on the other side. Now let's get this over with before I _really_ become a wolf."_

Midna quickly vanished into his shadow as the wolf readied to leap through the curtain. He seemed hardly to notice, focused as he was on his objective. Unsurprised by the action, Tanya watched as Link sprang and hurled himself at the semi-solid barrier. A single ripple was the only sign of his passing, and he was gone.

A muffled half-howl, half-scream of pain reached her ears from the other side.

Tanya shuddered, disturbed by the unearthly sound and what it meant. _'I have to go through _that_?' _she thought. _'Oh God… Well, here goes.'_

With the thought of finally being human again driving her on, the girl-dragon ran across the Twilight curtain.

Immediately the same kind of pain she had experienced upon entering Hyrule flooded through her, albeit at a slightly less-concentrated level. At least this time she remained conscious, though she wondered through the pain if it might not have been better to be knocked out. The waves of agony that rolled through her enormous mass as the bones shifted, muscles compacted, and tendons shrank was enough to make any grown man break into hysteric tears, let alone a seventeen-year-old girl.

At last, after what seemed like ages later, the internal roiling subsided and Tanya could relax her weary body. She dimly registered her head resting gratefully against the stubbly grass of…wherever it was they had crossed into from the Twilight.

'_Feels like a plain,'_ she thought, trying to pry her eyes open. They refused to cooperate, however, as her mind slowly drifted toward unconsciousness.

A faint voice dipped into the darkness of her mind. She struggled to focus on it, to hear what it said, but as much as she tried and as loud as its owner called to her, she just couldn't gather the strength to fight the darkness.

When she was finally outflanked by exhaustion, Tanya surrendered and let unconsciousness capture her.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry for the short chappie. This is what happens when I rewrite the beginning and cut a whole chapter's length out... O_O


	4. Interpretatio

**Chapter 4: **_**Interpretatio**_

_Kelly woke to raised voices in the distance and her mother's hand on her arm. The little girl smelled smoke and urgency in the air, and Bazek whined at the foot of her crib, his tail tucked between his legs. Fear swirled in her dark room like the smoke that was beginning to curl in around the top corner of her door._

"_Come, Kelly," Ma said urgently. "We have to go."_

_The toddler rubbed sleepily at her heavy eyelids and complained, "But Mama—"_

"_Hush!" the woman chastised lightly, lifting her daughter from the bed and setting her on her feet beside her. "Now is not the time. Stay with me and don't make a sound. Understood?"_

_Wide awake now, Kelly obediently nodded and took her mother's hand._

_Pa joined them as they and the dog moved through the house toward the back door, away from the smoke. His sword, which usually hung in its scabbard over the fireplace, was strapped to a heavy belt around his waist. Kelly's eyes went wide as the first inklings of fear rose in her heart. "They're coming from everywhere. Anyone who doesn't resist is being herded into the Square. I'm going to round up the other men and see if we can make a break toward the Field and the Castle."_

"_I'll come with you," Ma said evenly, following him down the dark hallway._

_He halted with a hand on the door's latch. Ma stopped abruptly, causing Kelly to bump into her leg. The child stared up at them with wide green eyes, only understanding a fraction of what was going on._

"_No, Mara," Pa told her, putting a hand on his daughter's red hair. "You must get out with Kelly. We can't let Ganon kill her now, after how far we've come. Find Link; he'll know what to do."_

_Kelly's ears pricked at the mention of Cousin Link, and a little of the fear she had felt melted away. "We gonna see Leen, Papa?"_

_Her father forced a smile for her and knelt to her level. "Yes, Kelly. You're going to go stay with Cousin Link for a little while. I'm not coming with you now, but I'll meet you there, okay? Be good for Mother, and do exactly as she says."_

_She stood on her toes to wrap her arms around her father's neck, comforted by his huge presence and his horsey scent. "I scared," she whispered._

"_I know, sweetie; I know," he comforted, patting her back. "Just follow Mother and it'll be alright."_

_Kelly whined as Pa stood and Ma picked her up._

"Should we…her?"

"She needs…as she can…"

_She watched, fear bright in her eyes, as Pa vanished through the doorway into the shifting light and shadow of a torch-lit night. Only, Kel had never seen torches big enough to cast as much light as she could see out there…_

"She's not…at this…"

_And then she and Ma followed him, and Kelly hid her face in her mother's shoulder upon seeing what was happening to her home._

"Tanya?"

The girl's eyes flew open as she bolted upright, her heart pounding and the imagined scent of smoke in her nose. Images of fire danced in her mind's eye as the dream slowly faded to be replaced by Link's concerned face.

"Are you alright?" he asked, steadying her with one hand on her arm.

With the vision still lingering in her senses, Tanya could only nod mutely. Though he seemed unconvinced by this, Link nonetheless removed his hand and leaned back in his chair to give her some space. She could sense him appraising her as she wiped cold sweat off her forehead and controlled her breathing, not quite ready to sort through the images slowly fading from her recent memory.

Beyond that were more dream-like memories—images of a canyon, a black-and-white marked imp, a dragon…

Tanya groaned at the headache forming between her temples, cradling her head in her hands. Those images weren't as vague as her dream had been; they seemed more like memories, and recent ones.

"W-what happened…?"

She heard the creak of a chair as Link shifted, chuckling shortly and dryly. "Do you want the long or short story?"

"I don't think my head could take the long one right now…" she returned with a hint of amusement.

"Basically, you were ambushed by Moblins a short ways from your house. I held them back long enough for you to pass through the portal before I followed you. Unfortunately it separated us, so I wasn't sure how far apart we landed." He paused; Tanya got the distinct impression he was frowning in confused contemplation. "We…also found ourselves within something that Midna—a strange imp, if you don't remember—called the Twilight, which transformed us into animals."

"The dragon…" she muttered to herself, seeing the silver beast against the backs of her eyelids. As soon as what Link had said truly sank in, however…

"WHOA, whoa, whoa! Back it up, Hero!" One hand emphasized her words with the universal "stop" gesture, while her other massaged her furrowed brow. "_Portal_?"

His voice sounded both wary and perplexed. "The portal between your world and Hyrule, yes."

The notion swam in circles around the whirlpool of her thoughts for a few moments as she slowly lowered her extended hand, settling it in her lap. _'But…how can that be possible?_' she wondered. _'…Because it_'snot_ possible!'_

Her hand clenched into a fist, every muscle in her arm tightening with the motion. "You're lying. There's no such thing," she spat.

"Then explain how you're sitting in my house in the middle of Tauro, a village of northern Hyrule." His words were sharp with challenge and a hint of anger.

"Because I'm not. I'm just dreaming—granted, it's a rather lucid dream, but a dream all the same—"

Tanya nearly jumped when she felt a warm, callused hand envelop her fist. "Tanya. Open your eyes."

Though loathe to obey, the girl truly was curious if a little scared of this new reality. Slowly, she let her eyes open; dim light gradually filtered into them, lighting Link's determined expression and the hardness in his crystal-sapphire eyes. Her gaze paused on them for a second; even when touched with anger, they were the most noticeable thing about his features.

She brought her attention back to their conversation when Link spoke again. "Now look out there, and tell me this is not Hyrule."

After a moment in which she decided he wasn't going to back down, Tanya turned to face the window behind her, pushing herself onto her knees to look through the opening. Upon seeing the quaint village of thatch-roofed houses half-hidden by trees, she slumped in defeat.

She really _was_ in Hyrule.

Something about the realization drained what little strength she had left. She rocked back to sit on her heels, her mind empty of everything but a buzzing numbness. _'I'm in Hyrule. I'm_ really _here. It exists. There's a portal…'_

The portal. That watery thing she had been drawn towards as if under some kind of spell. The thing she had never meant to touch, let alone pass through.

This wasn't her fault—and there still might be a possibility to go back home.

"I want to go home," Tanya said quietly, her face in her hands again. Anger bubbled in her chest when Link didn't say anything. "Take me home. I don't want to be here!"

She knew it sounded childish. She knew she was starting to panic. But she also knew this wasn't right—_he_ had had no right to bring her here without asking how she felt about it first.

"I _can't_, Tanya."

The thick pain in his voice put her rising anger on hold momentarily. She quickly picked her head up and looked over at him, eyes studying his lowered head and clenched fists perplexedly. "I…I can't," he whispered.

"What do you mean, you can't?" she demanded, more in confusion than anger. "You're the _Hero of Time_, for God's sake."

His back tensed, his knuckles growing white with the strength of his grip. "That doesn't mean I can do _everything_, Tanya. I'm not invincible, or infallible," he hissed, the words clipped and sharp.

Disbelief held her silent for a second before her anger returned. "How hard can it be to rip open a stupid portal and send me back?" Tanya snapped. "You've obviously already done it once—"

"It's _not_ that simple!" Link snarled, glaring at her. The wolfin ferocity in his eyes froze her in fear as he continued, never looking away from her. "The first time one of those was opened, the most powerful mage in Hyrule _died_ to open it. The portals are tricky on the best of days, especially ones leading to Terra. So no, it's _not_ so easy to send you back."

As if realizing what he had said, the hero quickly averted his gaze, most of the tension leaving his body. After a moment to rally her thoughts and attempt to slow her racing heart, Tanya begged, "Then why bother coming to—to Terra? Why the trouble? Why _me_?"

Inexplicable pain flickered over the sliver of his face she could see. Link sighed and rested his forehead on one loosely-curled fist, his brow furrowing as if he were fighting an internal battle. She waited patiently but anxiously as the silence dragged on, watching something happening within the hero that she felt she could never understand.

At last, he heaved a deep sigh and dropped his hand, turning his head toward her but not meeting her gaze. "Zel—the Princess had a vision," he started slowly, quietly. "She said if Hyrule were to survive the coming conflict, we would have to find the girl with the golden pendant to aid us. We would find this girl in another world entirely—one that had not yet been explored, merely heard of in legend."

Tanya stared at him in open disbelief. People in Hyrule knew about Earth? When people on Earth didn't know about _Hyrule_? Not only that, but they had legends and could get there from here—

"Wait a minute," she growled. "How do you know _I'm_ this girl she mentioned? "The girl with the golden pendant" is so _vague_. It could fit a dozen other girls I know, but of all people you pick _me_. _Why?_"

"Our enemy also seems to know about this girl. All I had to do was follow the Moblins, and they led me straight to you."

She leveled her "ohyeah I'm _so_ buying that—_not_" glare at him. "Yeah, sure you did, because Moblins are _so_ smart."

Link's mouth pressed into a straight line, his eyes returning her glare with equal intensity. Behind the glare, though, Tanya could see that same fight he'd gone through earlier—and whatever he was fighting seemed to be winning this time.

"I don't have to explain myself to you," he hissed, quickly standing. "The fact of the matter is, you are the girl Zelda saw, and you can't go home. You can't run away, so just face the fact you're going to be here for a while."

Feeling like she had been slapped in the face, Tanya could only gape at the enraged warrior standing over her. Her vision swam and pinpricks that she knew were tears tickled the corner of her eyes. She swallowed down the lump in her throat with a will, though unable to turn her gaze from Link.

Something quailed under his burning eyes. Something that didn't want to admit he was right.

But he _was_ right.

Apparently that something showed in her expression, because for a second Tanya could have sworn Link almost looked…shocked? Regretful? But the moment quickly passed, and Link darted down the ladder behind him before she could say anything.

Something told her he wasn't just leaving, but fleeing.

*—*—*

"_It could fit a dozen other girls I know, but of all people you pick me._

"Why_?"_

He couldn't tell her. He just couldn't. For all the courage he supposedly carried, for all his title as Hero of Time meant, somehow he just couldn't bring himself to tell her.

So he ran away. Farore help him, he _ran_. Like a coward.

'_Some Bearer of Courage_ I _am.'_

By the time his feet slowed to a halt, Link realized they had carried him to the edge of Tauro's Spring. He stared across the shallow pool for a short time, not thinking of anything, before dropping to first one knee then the other in the sandy soil. His reflection stared back at him from the surface of the glassy water—bringing to mind memories of much darker water and a darker face—before he scowled and punched a gloved hand through the image.

He was supposed to be stronger than this.

A breath of air and sudden warmth beside his ear drew away the anger, leaving behind the pain and sadness to which he was all too accustomed. The hero sighed, sitting back on his heels and staring down at his hands in his lap.

"I can't give her the answers she wants," he murmured dejectedly.

_Perhaps you must first answer your own questions,_ the Light Spirit whispered, voice as airy as the wind between a tree's leaves. _Then you may find it within yourself to tell her who she is._

Link sighed. "I've been trying to find the answers for fourteen years, Tauro, and they still elude me." He clenched his fingers into fists, more to see and feel them move than to contain or channel any emotion.

_It is imperative you answer them, Hero. The fate of many worlds rests on the Fourth Chosen, and she cannot defeat the coming tide if she does not know herself._

Feeling the weight of the world settle more heavily on his shoulders, the hero hung his head, wrapping his fingers in the blond locks on the back of his head. He knew what he had to do—by all three Goddesses did he know!—yet…

He swallowed past a dry throat, all of a sudden feeling ten years old with a seemingly-impossible quest on his hands.

"_Hey, Hero, cheer up! Being gloomy about it all isn't going to help anyone, you know."_

Irritation quickly squashed his ten-year-old-and-inadequate feeling. What in Din's name…

"Shut up, Midna," he growled. "You don't understand."

The imp huffed indignantly._ "Well, then, if you want to be that way… I was just trying to help,"_ she muttered.

"Well it's _not_ helping, so stop tryi—" He blinked, stopping mid-phrase when he saw the imp.

Midna was semi-transparent.

"_What? Do I have something on my face?"_ she demanded, narrowing her eyes at him as if daring him to answer that.

Link huffed and shook off his surprise, looking away from Midna. Uneasy silence descended over the clearing, broken only by the normal sounds of an undisturbed forest.

"_Alright, Hero,"_ Midna finally said. _"C'mon. Spill. What's eating at you?"_

He didn't even grace her with moving, let alone a glare. "Why should I tell you?"

An exasperated huff greeted this sentiment. _"Now let's see how far that got you_ _last time you pulled that—um,_ nowhere_. So let's try this again: What got you all up in arms when Tanya asked a perfectly legitimate question?"_

Bristling at the rebuke—he hadn't come out here to be questioned _more_, Din damn it!—Link turned and countered with questions of his own. "What are _you_ doing here, anyway? Where did you go when we crossed the border? And why do you look like that?"

The single ruby-red eye not hidden under her helm appraised him a short while, as if deciding if it was worth answering those questions without getting answers of her own. Eventually, she explained, _"_I_ am keeping my eye on some very important personages—not unlike yourself, if I'm not mistaken. And I look like this, as you so eloquently put it, because I'm quite sensitive to light and your shadow makes for a great shield."_ She grinned, revealing one particularly intimidating fang. _"Not to mention it's more exciting than Tanya's shadow, at the moment."_

"I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment," Link muttered, frowning darkly at the mischievous imp.

Before he could continue on that train of thought, Midna's head jerked toward the path he had taken to reach the Spring—the only one leading into the sacred clearing. _"Someone's coming,"_ she warned, diving toward him. Link instinctively braced for a collision, briefly wondering what she was thinking, before realizing the imp had simply vanished and his shadow had reappeared beneath him.

He blinked. "That was…weird."

And he had seen plenty of weird things in his lifetime.

Almost-silent footsteps approaching him shook Link from his stupor. He quickly stood and faced the newcomer, quickly relaxing when realizing who it was.

"Impaz," he greeted simply, nodding.

The Shekiah returned the gesture, halting a few feet in front of him. "Vanessa has returned from her scouting run. We're meeting at the blacksmith's to discuss our next course of action."

"Understood." Gesturing for her to lead the way, Link followed the Sage of Shadow away from the Spring and back into the village proper. They stuck to back alleys and what shadows they could find; being in the presence of a Shekiah had automatically sent Link sliding back into the habits learned under Impa so long ago. He tried not to think of that, though, as they quickly made their way toward the southwest side of town.

The blacksmith, Rusl, was the first to spot them as they moved from the shadows of a side-alley into the shade of an overhang. He nodded to them briefly before turning back to his work, a motion which attracted the attention of the girl who had been speaking with him.

She turned when Link and Impaz entered the forge proper, taking up the first seats they could find. "Welcome back," she greeted, extending her hand in a warrior's greeting. Link clasped it firmly, a familiar gesture that focused his mind.

"I should say the same to you, Vanessa," he returned as she settled down on a stool a short ways across from him. "What did you find on your flight?"

Vanessa's expression immediately hardened, and she crossed her arms. "The Twilight's expanded, if you were right about its previous position. I'd say we've got three days until it overtakes the village."

Shekiah habit quickly schooled his surprise at the news. _'It's_ moving_?'_ "There's more."

It was a statement, not a question; he could see the dragon rider was itching to say more.

She nodded, settling one foot on the brace between two legs of her stool in a motion that betrayed nervousness. As she spoke, she opened a messenger pouch on her belt and pulled out a slip of parchment, passing it over to him. "When we flew low for a closer look, we almost ran into a small patrol of creatures I've never seen before. And they were outside the Curtain, or whatever you called it."

Link frowned thoughtfully, eyes tracing the hastily-drawn sketch carefully. The creature was obviously bipedal, but was depicted as preferring to run on all fours. Red runes laced across dark skin; from what Link could tell, they looked suspiciously like Midna's green markings.

But the most disconcerting thing about the monster was its head—or lack thereof. An engraved silver plaque—helm—_thing_ took the place of its face, and short tentacles grew like hair behind the helm.

"_Shadow Beasts,"_ Midna's sibilant voice whispered in his ear.

He nearly jumped off his chair at the sound, but restrained himself enough that Vanessa merely gave him an odd look. "They're Shadows Beasts," Link said to cover his near-blunder. "Unfortunately, that's almost all I know about them, other than that they're what some people become when they enter the Twilight."

Vanessa frowned, her fingers worrying a corner of her tunic. "That's good to know, but…I'd like to know what purpose they have. From what I can tell, they're the only monsters that leave the Twilight—whether willingly or not, though, we have no clue."

"Hm…"

The threesome sat in quiet contemplation of the news; Link slowly folded the parchment back into a small square, sliding it into his own pouch for future reference. Impaz was the first to break the silence: "It seems to me whatever we do, we must leave. We do not yet know how to stop the Twilight's movement, and until then, we would be putting ourselves in unnecessary danger staying here."

Link nodded in agreement, rising from his seat against a low table. "We'll make for Hyrule Castle; Zelda needs to know, and she can help us get a plan together. We can stop at the various population centers along our route and warn them, too." He turned to Vanessa. "Fly ahead to Lon Lon and let them know we're coming. That should save us some time there. Afterward, let the Zora know what's going on; we'll meet you in Kokiri Forest."

*—*—*

Tanya winced as the door slammed shut behind Link, sending shudders through the whole house. Her emotions were too wild for her to care at the moment, however.

'_How _dare_ he think he can do this to us!'_

'_He's obviously got some dark secret. Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt…'_

_It's a simple question, dammit! Why can't he answer it?'_

Helpless against her own feelings, the girl drew her knees in to her chest and set her forehead against them. A confused whimper escaped her as tears threatened to overwhelm her, arms locked around her knees like a vice-grip.

'_I want to go home,'_ the child in her whispered.

'_Until that happens, you have to make do,'_ her tactical side advised.

'_Suck it up and face it like a warrior,'_ the archer growled.

She mediated her breathing through a few rounds of measured exhalations, clearing her thoughts. She couldn't afford to be indecisive and panicked. She had to decide what she knew and where she stood, or she would fall before she even tried to stand.

'_Hyrule exists. We'll start with that. That's…not very divisive. I can handle that. Because Hyrule exists, the Hero of Time exists, the Triforce exists, and the monsters of course have to cause trouble.'_ A flicker of a smile ghosted across her lips. _'It wouldn't be Hyrule if they didn't, really.'_

She frowned again. '_Now. Apparently said monsters, under the command of a so-far-nameless enemy, are after me—or, a girl_ like _me. …That's a little harder to swallow. The hero who rescued me and seems to know why they're after me, however, is being vague on the subject.'_ She snorted. _'Though, if he were any _more_ vague, he'd be saying nothing.'_

So where did that leave her?

A long way from home, chased by a bunch of crazy monsters with a locked-jaw hero as her only guide and protector.

Wonderful.

'_Then again, whoever said I_ needed _a protector, anyway?'_ Tanya admonished herself, at last unfolding from her ball of misery. Scowling, she threw off her sheets and swung her feet onto the plank floor. At the sharp pains that shot through her body, though, a hiss snaked past her clenched teeth.

'_Okay, _that _hurt.'_

The girl grimaced, rubbing her face wearily and trying to stifle a yawn, but failing. Grumbling about her horrible luck, she spent the next five minutes dragging herself down three sets of ladders. Said ladders, she realized, connected three platforms that increased the floor space within what turned out to be a hollowed-out tree.

'_So this hero has a tree-house, too…or upgraded from a flat to a condo after leaving the forest.'_

Finally, feeling totally spent, Tanya gratefully collapsed into one of two chairs on either side of a lone table. She stared hungrily at the fruit piled on a bowl set in its center as she caught her breath. As much as her stomach begged her to eat something, however, her arms stubbornly refused to cooperate.

Tanya almost marveled at how exhausted her body was. She wasn't exactly unfit—running on the track team, riding, and hunting didn't make one weak—but that transformation was unlike anything she'd ever experienced.

She sighed, a hint of irritation in the sound, as that reminded her of her predicament and unanswered questions. Not wanting to think about it again—at least, not yet—the girl stubbornly forced her hand to reach out and grab an apple from the bowl.

After that, her stomach was all too happy to distract her mind.

"Well I see _someone_ has quite the healthy appetite."

Tanya nearly bolted straight up out of her chair. As it was, she ended up half falling out of it, barely managing to catch one hand on the back of the chair. She barely cut off a yelped curse at the person when she looked up and saw who had startled her so.

'_Of course only a Shekiah would be able to startle me like that,'_ she thought absently, mind still too frozen with awe and intimidation to comprehend much more than that.

The woman calmly raised an eyebrow at Tanya, who was still sitting half in her chair and half on the floor. She crossed her arms over a belt of thin knives strapped across her chest and shifted her weight a fraction, every line of her body exuding quiet confidence. A hint of a smile pulled at her stern features, though.

"It seems you have quite the startle reflex, as well" she added.

Scowling, Tanya moved to heave herself back into her chair, but the leg propping her up gave out halfway through the motion. Only her white-knuckled grip on the chair-back saved her from a face plant; she could have sworn she heard a muffled chuckle from the Shekiah warrior.

"And the steadiness of a newborn foal, also."

Just as she opened her mouth to retort, Tanya found her words cut off yet again when a black-gloved hand appeared to help her up. Gaping, she could only look back and forth between it and the strange woman's kindly expression for a few moments.

"And I thought Shekiah didn't crack jokes," she muttered, firmly latching onto the hand with hers.

"Whoever said I was joking?" she returned, an impassive mask already settling over the smile that had been there mere seconds ago. If Tanya hadn't seen it herself, she might have thought she imagined it.

Once she had resettled herself in her chair, the girl pinned the woman with determined eyes. "Do I have the privilege of an introduction, or shall I just call you the Nameless Shekiah?"

Again, the eyebrow moved up her forehead. "I answer your question, you answer mine?" she challenged.

Tanya pursed her lips a moment, then shrugged. "Sure." Muttered under her breath, she added, "That's already more than I've gotten from _some_ people…"

If the woman heard this remark, she didn't show any signs of it. "I am Impaz of the Shekiah, Sage of Shadow and [title]." Sliding gracefully into the chair across from Tanya, she continued, "And I want to know what happened earlier that is making the Hero avoid his own house."

Dread sank to the bottom of her stomach, heavier than the food she'd just consumed. Avoiding Impaz's piercing red gaze—_'So much like Midna's,_' she noticed—the girl mumbled, "Not my fault he can't answer a couple stupid questions."

"And these questions would be…?"

Tanya fidgeted, feeling as though a guilty child under a parent's interrogation. She opened her mouth once or twice to speak, but couldn't quite decide how to start. Impaz was patient, however; Tanya could feel her eyes watching her the whole time, though she didn't say a word or move at all while she waited.

At last, she couldn't stand it any longer.

"Why me?" she blurted, hands clenching into fists atop the table. "What's so special about me that…all this…"

At the feel of Impaz's hand over her white knuckles, Tanya looked up sharply. The Shekiah's facial expression hadn't changed, but her eyes had softened sympathetically. "I know this must feel overwhelming and impossible, and as if it's happening too fast. But the Hero doesn't choose someone to aid him without good reason; I can tell you that from experience."

Her anger sharply deflated, the archer replaced by the child. "That still doesn't tell me _why_," she returned in a pathetically small voice.

Impaz offered a brief smile and patted her hand before leaning back. "Who can know the reasoning of a hero such as Link? From what the legends say, he's been fighting this battle for quite a while. It's his duty as the Hero of Time to follow evil wherever and whenever it appears. I'm sure he hasn't had a break since he started, unlike the rest of us."

Tanya pulled her feet up onto her chair and wrapped her arms around her knees again, letting this sink in. A thoughtful quiet fell over the two, Impaz merely watching while the girl sorted through her thoughts.

"Do…_you_ have an idea why he picked me?"

The Shekiah met her eyes with a level look, her expression not giving away anything as she studied Tanya. After a few moments, she sighed quietly and said apologetically, "He is…very particular about whom he shares his reasons with, and why. It is a very Shekiah trait, and inherent in that trait is trust that the people he tells won't divulge those reasons."

As Impaz stood, all hope Tanya had of shedding light on her circumstances vanished, and she dropped her chin atop her knees resignedly. She barely glanced up as the woman circled the table and set a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I am sorry, Tanya. But it will do nothing between you two to rely on a third party to reconcile your differences. This is something he alone can tell you about."

Giving Tanya's shoulder a comforting squeeze, Impaz continued, "Now, I think you should get some more rest. We will be getting an early start tomorrow, and Link drives a hard pace."

* * *

**A/N:** You have NO idea how much better this reads to me now. It was like pulling nails *and* teeth to get these scenes out of Gwen last time. This just flowed off my fingers, after I realized how badly the old version flowed...


	5. Impetus

**A/N: **_New readers can disregard this._

Dear Veteran Readers (that haven't already gone back and read this): I seriously hope you get a notification for this chapter, because it's the current end of the rewritten parts, and I really need to tell you to go back and read the first two chapters at least. Because things happen majorly different now. And there are edits in the other two chapters, too. Pretty big ones, too. So it's quite important to go back and read.

For everyone else: Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 5: _Impetus_**

A figure sat atop a raised platform, her silhouette a stark contrast against the pale predawn light peeling away the darkness over the forest. She hardly moved as the chill air warmed with the coming sunlight, staring out across the canopy as if carved of marble.

Gradually, as the sun cleared the horizon, color filled out her shape. Her braid glowed bright red in the rose- and blood-red light, the antithesis to her glittering eyes. Anxiety filled their emerald depths, pulling her expression into one of concerned brooding. Beneath her eyes were the beginnings of dark circles, not apparent in the half-light unless one looked for them.

Tanya had dreamed again, and not just any vague dream that vanished with the morning fog. She had gone back to that village, to far too realistic images and sensations of fire and death that were too jumbled to make heads or tails of anything. Screams of terrified men and women—some suddenly broken off in silence or final high-pitched shrieks—carried over into her waking hours. When she had jerked awake, her heart had raced as if she had finished running a marathon, and sweat had dampened her sheets.

And she had no idea what it meant. Why were those people under attack? With that level of fear running through the village, that was the only logical explanation for the screams. But she had seen no obvious causes for such an atrocity.

_'Maybe I'm treating it too much like some kind of warning,'_ she finally concluded, rubbing her face wearily with one hand. _'Maybe it really _is _just a stupid dream.'_

Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that there was some kind of message in that dream. It was far too lifelike to be a normal nightmare; Tanya felt as if she had been there before, been carried through the dying town just like the child through whose eyes she saw.

Goosebumps appeared on her arm simply at the thought of the eerie scene imprinted into her memory…or maybe it was just the nippy fall breeze blowing down from the north. Shivering and rubbing her hands over her arms to warm them, the girl turned her gaze toward that horizon. At this distance, she could barely make out the innocent-looking Curtain that separated Hyrule from the eerie Twilight. It was more than she had been able to do the previous evening, however.

_'I wonder if _that_ had anything to do with my dreams…_' Tanya wondered. After a moment, she sighed and shook her head, pushing those thoughts from her mind.

_'…I wonder where we're going.'_

Movement and voices far below the platform finally called her attention from the brilliant lightshow in the east. Unlacing her arms from around her drawn-up legs, the girl cautiously peered over the edge of the tree house roof to see what was going on.

Link and Impaz stood with a third man beside the hitching post where Epona and Katara were tied, tacked and waiting patiently. The mystery man was speaking quietly to Link, a long bundle held in his hands. After a few moments, Tanya saw the hero nod and take the package, tucking it under one arm in order to shake the man's hand in farewell.

Impaz glancing up at the roof and meeting Tanya's gaze, however, reminded her she was supposed to be down there. Hurriedly she backed away from the edge and crawled the short distance to a small window, which she climbed through and onto the house's topmost level. Snatching up her bow and the bag she had packed the night before—which held her old clothes as well as traveling rations and a waterproofed cloak—she dropped down the ladders and raced out the door onto the porch.

Moving as quickly as she was, Tanya accidentally slammed the door behind her. She winced at the crack-like bang it made and ducked her head as Link looked over his shoulder at her. "Sorry I'm late," she mumbled, stopping next to Impaz. She glanced up at her as the Shekiah put a hand on her shoulder, then hazarded a look at Link; his expression was hard, nearly impenetrable.

She quickly looked away again. Those almost-feral eyes were too much for her to handle right now.

"You look much better in those clothes."

Tanya snapped her head back up, eyes widening with surprise. His countenance had lost most of the antagonism she'd seen just seconds ago, replaced by a guarded mask. She lowered her eyes again, taking in the deep blue tunic and tan breeches she had been given to replace her plain green T-shirt and blue jeans.

"Thanks," she muttered—not entirely sure it was sincere. Before the awkwardness she could feel around them got any worse, Tanya gently extracted her shoulder from Impaz's grip and walked over to Katara.

A tiny smile made its way to her face as she approached. The blue roan wuffed in greeting, eyes alert and ears pricked; she nuzzled her rider's hand and then nudged Tanya's waist in a demand for a treat. The girl chuckled, fondly ruffling Katara's forelock. "Sorry, girl, I don't have anything for you now."

The horse sighed, her breath tickling her hand. She laughed quietly, imagining the voice she'd heard only two days ago: '_You better next time.'_

Her smile slowly disappeared as she remembered that day, however. Growling in irritation, the girl moved to Katara's flank and quickly hoisted herself into the saddle, settling into the familiar grooves with satisfaction. A short ways down the path, she saw Link twisted around in his saddle on Epona to give her a look that said _"Hurry up, let's _go_, will you?"_

She sighed jadedly—couldn't he have _some_ patience?—then almost slid off her saddle when Impaz suddenly rode up on her off side.

"What the hell?" she couldn't help snapping. "Why is it _every_ time you show up out of _nowhere_ I almost end up falling, even when I'm _sitting down_?"

The woman chuckled, patting her black horse's neck. "Not my fault you're not paying attention," she returned bemusedly. "Now are we going to catch up to Lone Wolf there, or will we spend the rest of the day rooted to this spot?"

Rolling her eyes, Tanya refused to dignify that remark with a response and instead nudged Katara into a trot.

It wasn't as if she couldn't have come up with one. The first two hours of the ride were spent in abject silence, with Impaz riding at the rear of the formation and Link in front of Tanya. Their pace was measured and steady, if somewhat faster than she and Katara were used to; Epona's large strides forced the smaller roan to step smartly if she was to keep up.

After a while, Tanya started to notice a change in the forest around them. Near the village, the trees had been widely dispersed and the ground between them filled with a carpet of thick, luxurious grass. The farther west they rode, though, the larger and closer together the ancient trunks became. Soon they were threading a narrow track through the trees, riding single-file with Link in the lead and Impaz serving as rear-guard.

Eventually, the girl's sharp ears could distinguish the sound of running water.

_'Must be nearing a river,'_ she decided.

Five more minutes' travel proved her right. Tanya halted Katara for a moment at the top of a small rise as they exited the thick trees. Impaz reined in beside her as Link continued down the grassy bank. Epona readily stepped into the shallow stream, eagerly dipping her muzzle for a drink.

"Come," Impaz beckoned softly, following Link's lead. Tanya complied, knowing the unspoken importance of this short break.

Having done this a few times before, Katara quickly copied her compatriots and took a deep pull from the crystal waters. Tanya stroked her neck absently, idly watching Link as he kicked his feet out of the stirrups and leaned backward to stretch.

As she watched him relax, the girl started to seriously contemplate the hero. He wasn't exactly what she had been expecting; there wasn't a scrap of green cloth on him, and he left his unruly blond locks uncovered. An aura of self-assurance seemed to shield him from the outside world—a shield which she knew wasn't as strong as it seemed, if she was right about his reluctance to speak to her.

Tanya almost couldn't reconcile the differences between the Link she was familiar with and the flesh and blood Hylian before her. If it weren't for the Master Sword, she might doubt they were the same person all together.

She was startled out of her thoughts by Epona splashing through the water toward her and Katara. Link's bright blue eyes were on her, as enigmatic as ever.

"Are you ready?"

The girl nodded, gathering her reins in one hand and picking Katara's head up. She huffed—_'Aw, but it tastes so good and I was just getting settled'_—but nonetheless obeyed, trotting up the rise after Epona until the mare stopped suddenly.

Curious as to why, Tanya reined in next to Link. She frowned when she saw the package from earlier in his hand—now unwrapped to reveal a straight blade with a simple crossguard. His eyes flicked over to her momentarily before returning to the sword, which he sheathed in a plain leather scabbard.

She blinked in confusion when he held it out to her. "You'll need something more than that bow to protect yourself when travelling with me," he explained. "A sword is much faster to draw than an unstrung bow."

Her eyes narrowed at his assumption that the bow was the only weapon she knew how to use. Two fluid, practiced motions brought her long hunting knife into her hand and aimed at the meat of Link's thigh.

"I think I can handle myself," she hissed, sheathing the knife once she was sure she had gotten her point across.

Tanya couldn't help but notice the scabbard in his hand had instinctively moved to block her threat.

Something about that told her he had _wicked_ reflexes.

"A knife still isn't as powerful as a sword," he insisted.

Irritation crept into her chest, which she hoped she kept hidden from her voice. "In the right place, it can be just as lethal. Besides, I don't know how to use a sword," she argued.

Link frowned, angled brows furrowing in equal irritation. "A sword is more lethal in more places, and I'll demonstrate the basics for you when we stop if that'll make you feel better. Besides—" He offered the sword again. "—you should get used to carrying one. A bow does no good in cramped quarters, and by the time you learn to properly use the sword, you'll be used to carrying it."

She wanted to refuse. Despite his logic, she wanted to so badly. She even opened her mouth to do so—

Then saw Impaz's raised eyebrow and warning expression.

Tanya silently worked her jaw for a few seconds, feeling like a fish, before finally closing it and pursing her lips. "Fine," she growled grudgingly, snatching the weapon from Link. Ignoring the unsmiling triumph in his eyes, she flipped the bandoleer attached to the scabbard around her chest and adjusted the buckle so it rested comfortably atop her sternum.

"Happy?" she muttered as Epona started forward along the top of the bank.

She jumped yet again—though not as badly this time—as Impaz spoke beside her. "You _could_ try being a little less antagonistic about everything. It tends to help people's moods."

"Tell that to _him_," Tanya retorted, resolutely staring at Katara's withers so as not to see the Shekiah's stern countenance.

"All I'm saying," she continued mildly, "is that maybe you could try talking to him civilly before clawing the answers you're looking for out of him. It would do both of you good, I think."

Tanya pouted, stubbornly settling herself into a sulk, but did consider the words of wisdom as they rode. She really didn't know much about the hero; maybe it would help to figure out who she was dealing with before she went pressing the wrong buttons. At least it would give her a sense of how to manipulate the answers from him, if not a sense of whom he really was.

She had a feeling he kept _that_ buried rather deeply, for some mysterious reason.

_'I'm sure I'm going to regret this…'_

Impaz's dark horse dropped away behind them as Tanya urged Katara into a trot. They quickly drew alongside Link and Epona, slowing to match the other horse's pace.

Link raised an eyebrow at her, looking only mildly questioning at her sudden move. "And to what do I suddenly owe the pleasure of your company?"

Tanya ground out the urge to scowl and retort at his insufferable drawl. Though the words tasted worse than tar on her tongue, she said, "I'm…sorry for snapping at you."

To her surprise, he cracked a smile—he _actually_ smiled!—and waved it off. "I must say your display was rather…impressive. You just about caught me off-guard, I will admit."

Wicked reflexes, alright. She didn't want to see what he could do when _not_ caught off guard.

"…oh," she finally said lamely. Not wanting an uncomfortable silence to fall, she quickly fumbled for another topic. "So… Where are we going? And why so soon?"

He didn't answer for a while, instead shading his eyes against the sun to watch the clouds scud across the sky. When he answered, it was with grimness. "The Twilight's moving closer, and we don't know why. Midna says it's these "Shadow Beasts" Vanessa saw on the border yesterday. Either way, we need to warn Zelda and anyone else we can reach on the way to the Castle."

Tanya frowned. "Vanessa?"

Something passed over his face—a flicker of an emotion she couldn't quite name. "Vanessa Satori, a Labrynnian whose parents were originally from here. She's a dragon rider also known as the Mistress of Light. She and her partner Teresa have been helping me keep an eye on the Twilight since we noticed it a week or so ago."

Not believing her ears, Tanya gaped at him as if to say _"You've_ got _to be joking."_ His eyebrow climbed up his forehead again at her expression; she was starting to think the motion was a rather familiar one to him. She shook her head and explained, "Just…wrapping my head around the idea there are dragons here."

Link smirked at her. "What? Feeling a little lost?" he teased. At the blush she could feel racing across her cheeks—an angry one, though he probably couldn't tell _that_—the hero laughed. "So _that's_ why you were on the roof this morning, isn't it?"

Her glare could have rocked a charging lion on its haunches, but he didn't flinch. "Not like _you're_ helping that any," she hissed, tugging sharply on Katara's reins. The mare chuffed at the sudden motion, but obediently stopped to let Epona move ahead of her.

Tanya was done trying to be civil to him for the day. She would much rather enjoy Impaz's company for the duration of the ride.

—

The heavens opened up just as they were waking the next morning. A spattering of scattered drops from an overhanging branch and a booted foot in her side prodded her out from a restless sleep.

"Come on, Tanya," Link said in response to her miserable grumbles. "We have to get moving."

Tanya narrowed her eyes at him and offered a silent snarl in reply, but pushed herself to her knees anyway. Shudders ran down her body as she reluctantly emerged from her cave of warm blankets into the wet, dreary fall air. Although she might have enjoyed the season back on Earth, rain had never been her favorite aspect of it. Water was fine; she liked swimming, and a light drizzle on an unusually warm day was welcome.

But she _loathed_ the cold and the wet together.

Some not-so-short time later, she finally perched herself atop Katara's back, waterproof cloak wrapped tightly around her shoulders and the cowl pulled down as far as it could go without impeding her vision. Once settled in for what was doubtless going to be a miserable ride, Tanya nudged Katara into a walk with a mumbled curse directed at the steady downpour.

As if in response, an overhanging branch showered her with droplets when she passed. Startled cursing followed, prompting Katara's ears to flatten. _'Today is _not_ my day,'_ Tanya growled to herself, futilely trying to swipe rainwater off her damp face. _'Come to think of it, this whole_ week_ is not my week.'_

The whole morning stayed the same: wet and dreary. Riding didn't do much to keep her warm, as the rain slowly became a seeping dampness barely held at bay by her cloak. Wind forced the fat droplets into her eyes despite the low overhang of her hood; every so often she had to flick the moisture away if she wanted to clearly see where she was going.

It wasn't like she had anyone to gripe to, either. Impaz had ridden ahead to scout the trail, and Link… Well, she didn't exactly want to talk to him right now.

He, however, didn't seem to get the message.

"When'd you learn to shoot?"

Gracing him with a glare, but deciding the question was harmless enough, she stared at the rain-soaked path ahead and replied, "My uncle gave me a bow for my fourteenth birthday." She tapped the aforementioned bow's tube, where it was hiding from the worst of the elements. "This one."

Tanya had hoped her clipped tone would warn him that she wasn't in the mood for chit-chat. She had hoped in vain.

"Who taught you?"

Her barely-checked temper bled into her sharp rejoinder: "Why do _you_ want to know, anyway?"

Link simply shrugged. This nonchalant reaction set her off-balance a little, tending more toward the angered side, but she forced herself to check her irritation before they had another spat like yesterday's. "I just wanted to know if you might enjoy training with the Gerudo," he explained calmly. "They're well-known for their prowess when it comes to horseback archery."

A spark of interest and amusement flared in her eyes, but was short-lived. At this point in time, he couldn't possibly be serious about going there, and dreaming of the warm sun was just that—a dream.

"Anywhere would be better than this rain, but a desert sounds amazing just about now," she griped with a hint of longing.

That brought a short chuckle from him, but no more. Instead his expression sharpened into one of wariness and he held up one hand to signal a halt.

"What is it?" she hissed, pulling Katara to a stop. The mare snorted once and held her head still, staring at a point off to her left and twitching her ears in different directions like radar antennae.

Link cut his hand through the air, glancing at her and then to the empty trail behind them. _Be quiet. I think something's following us._

As if to agree, Katara wuffed anxiously and arched her neck, lightly pawing the sod with a hoof. Epona nudged the other mare encouragingly and, at her rider's command, turned broadside to the path. Link's fingers caressed the Master Sword's hilt, as if hoping whatever it was would show itself so the divine steel could make mincemeat of it.

It did just that.

Katara squealed and half-reared as a monster jumped toward her from the shadowed trees. Tanya leaned against the mare's neck to bring her back to earth, spinning her around to face whatever had attacked them. Epona and Link had already sprung into action, both fighting in tandem with the horse's teeth and the rider's sword. The girl started to back her horse away from the fight—awkwardly drawing the sword Link had given her, with a touch of reluctant gratitude for his foresight—but as soon as she caught sight of the beast, she froze.

A gorilla-like monster the color of pure shadow stood on the path, crouching back on huge hind legs to free its arms to swipe at Epona. Glowing runes stretched across its charcoal skin, echoing the swirling red patterns on its flat silver helm. Worst of all, however, were the tentacle-like appendages on the back of its faceless head. They moved of their own accord like parasitic entities. Just the thought of it put a bad taste in her mouth.

And then, during a pause in its fight with Link, it looked at her.

Tanya couldn't describe exactly what emotion the _thing_ inspired in her—she only knew that she suddenly couldn't breathe; couldn't think; could only feel the cold caress of fear and darkness as its hand wrapped around her face and stole her will—

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the suffocating shadow vanished. Air rushed into her lungs with the rapidity of an unsealed vacuum. Tanya was forced to double over in her saddle and cough with the strength of the returning oxygen. Her hearing seemed to ring crystal-clear after the muted silence of that paranormal occurrence, capturing every slice and hoof beat as her companion drove off the abomination. The rain—formerly a barely-tolerated nuisance—was suddenly a welcome underscore of percussion that steadied her racing heart and cooled the hot fear surrounding her.

A final ring of steel sliding into its sheath told her the threat was gone. "Are you alright, Tanya?"

She swallowed and nodded, forcing herself to sit up in the saddle. "Yeah. I-I'll be fine."

Katara nickered softly, her head turned around to watch her rider concernedly. Link also appraised her carefully, but didn't say anything in reference to her condition. Before he could change his mind and ask, she switched topics. "What _was_ that thing?"

He shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but Midna beat him to the punch. "_That_ was a Shadow Beast," she explained, crossing her arms where she floated between the horses. "And seeing one so far from Tauro is not a good sign in more ways than you can imagine."

Tanya didn't like the sound of that; apparently Link didn't, either. He pursed his lips and stroked Epona's neck absentmindedly. "Where'd they come from?"

Midna looked away from them. "They…are what happens when a normal person is swallowed up by the Twilight."

"Those are _people_?"

Link's jaw tightened. "We have to put as much distance between us and the Curtain as we can as soon as possible. We have to get to the castle; Zelda will know what to do." He looked at Midna. "Is there anything else we should know about the Twilight before we get going again?"

"Yeah. You might want to start moving with some purpose, because when the Twilight reaches a village, it gains speed for a while. Also, with a village like Tauro… Well, let's just say the Curtain covers the whole province now."

Realization visibly dawned in his eyes. "The Spirits," he whispered. Shaking his head as if to dispel some clinging thought, the hero gathered his horse's reins in preparation to ride. "Thank you, Midna. I promise your help won't go unrewarded.

"But for now, we need to move."

—

Tanya had never ridden for so long for so far so quickly in her life.

By the time they reached Lon Lon Ranch early the next evening, her legs felt like they were fused to the saddle. Her back twinged painfully each time she shifted; she could hardly sit up straight for the exhaustion pulling her insistently toward sleep. Katara also showed symptoms of the long ride, dragging her feet and hanging her head.

Link and Epona hardly seemed bothered by any shadow of exhaustion. The hero dismounted with no lack of fleet-footedness, leaving an alert Epona to watch him as he climbed the stairs onto the porch of the homestead. The next twenty minutes passed in a blur—meeting Ralon, stabling the horses, and stumbling up the stairs into the second-story hallway.

As soon as she saw the small bed in her room, Tanya shut the door, tugged off her boots, and removed her pouch-lined belt before flopping onto the straw mattress. It might have been uncomfortable as little as a few days ago, but in her state, a rock slab fit for a Goron would have felt amazing. Breathing a contented sigh, the girl closed her eyes and let sleep claim her.

The dream was different tonight.

_Kelly didn't dare open her eyes as Ma stepped out into the fire and darkness of their village, clinging as tightly to her mother as her little hands could grasp. Inhuman grunts, squeals, and caterwauls assaulted her sensitive ears, the scent of smoke smothering her lungs. Whimpering and quivering with fear, the toddler buried her face in the crook of Ma's arm and shoulder, trying to block out the sounds and smells of death._

_The cacophony seemed to consume her despite the relative safety she normally felt in her mother's embrace. It wasn't long after the sensations crescendoed to a fever-pitch that she sensed a shift in her reality. Weightlessness suddenly overtook her, and the arms supporting her vanished. Clicking and hissing replaced the screams and burning flames; coarse hair rubbing against her body brought back her sense of gravity._

Tanya's eyes snapped open the moment she realized she wasn't dreaming anymore. The first thing she saw was a hairy, eight-legged and eight-eyed bulk as large as a miniature pony. All eight of those beady orange-and-black eyes stared right at her.

Her heart stopped for an interminable second, and then she finally found her voice—in a blood-curdling scream.

She tried to lash out with her feet as hard as she could, seeking to roll away from the monster and put as much distance between it and her as possible. To her horror, however, she found that she couldn't move her legs more than an inch apart from each other. Thin, rope-like threads wound around them, binding them together so she couldn't escape. The girl's pulse quickened and she started hyperventilating within seconds of realizing what was happening to her.

It was spider silk. And she was trapped in it.

Usually flies were trapped in webs. Spiders usually ate—

White-hot fire sliced through the skin of her collarbone, stinging like saltwater in a wound. Breathless with agony, she could only writhe around on her bed, pinned beneath the spider by its front legs with her mouth open in a soundless scream. A cooling liquid slid through her veins, slowly numbing the pain in her shoulder while also stilling her thrashing. Her vision swam for a second as vertigo clutched at her head; she paused and shook it to bring her sight back into focus, attempting to continue the fight with the desperate hope of a cornered animal.

But stopping was a mistake. The moment Tanya managed to slow the spinning sensation, darkness swallowed everything. She struggled to move her arms, but the spider had bound her wrists to her side while she wasn't moving. Her breathing, already uneven, grew shallower and shallower as consciousness drifted away, the poison moving quickly through her system with the help of an elevated heart rate.

_Darkness surrounded the child. The yelling and screaming which had seemed her whole world for the past indeterminate time had faded into the background, a haunting lullaby to which to fall asleep._

_At this point, though, Kelly didn't care; she just wanted to go home, to her bed and her little carved horses and playing tug-of-war with Bazek sitting by the hearth. She didn't understand what was going on, why these creatures were here and people were screaming and everything was burning… Tiny tears tracked down her cheeks, disappearing into the cloth of her mother's shirt, as the pair slowed to a halt in the shadows. Kelly wondered if they were done running yet, but only for a second when she felt Ma's arm tense._

_A pig-like snuffle and chortle came from in front of them, but Kelly didn't dare look. If Ma was afraid even the slightest, something was wrong—and she didn't want to see it. She cried piteously when she felt her mother kneel and set her on her feet; whatever was happening, she didn't want to be left alone. And as short as she was, standing on her own two feet might as well be alone._

_"Hush, Kelly," Ma snapped; looking up, the child could see that her eyes were pinned on the creature which had halted their progress._

_The events of the next few seconds moved too quickly for Kelly to voice a complaint. The monster made its move, forcing Ma to step forward and meet it. Kelly could only scream in fear and huddle in the shadows as weapons connected with the ring of steel on steel. The fight was merely a blend of light, darkness, and movement to her, a nightmare become real._

_Another instant later, a human yell broke through the fighting around her. One of the shapes she was watching gargled, then slowly fell to the ground and stopped moving. The remaining two spoke together a few moments—_

—

_Screams tore through the night, beacons beckoning him on into the bloody inferno of Syvaun. Moblins crowded the streets, herding Hylians toward the central square like so much livestock. Flames licked at him as he sprinted through the dark alleys, slaying any monster in the way in his search for one particular trio of people. The howls of slain monsters and his own cries echoed through the dancing light and darkness, calls that he feared would never be answered._

_One of those screams suddenly ripped through him from someplace nearby—a familiar shout that had him flying past everything else toward it. Everything depended on it._

Link had bolted upright and flung himself out of bed before he even realized what had woken him. The piercing shrieks of a dying village slunk back into his memory as his mind registered the more urgent problem that needed to be handled _now_.

Tanya had screamed. She wasn't yelling anymore, and muffled thumps and scrapes sounded from her room a short ways down the hall.

Something was wrong. Utterly, terribly wrong.

Snatching up the Master Sword, Link quickly moved out of his room and toward Tanya's, senses trained on the sounds within. What he could hear was enough, yet not enough; he didn't want to blindly run into a bad situation, but every nerve in his body was screaming _"Get in there NOW."_

He'd always found it hard to resist instinct for long.

Neither shock nor horror registered when he pushed open the door and made a beeline for the source of the sounds—simply burning anger that steadied his hand as the Master Sword plunged toward the Skulltula's abdomen. The spider shrieked at the feel of the blade rebounding off its tough exoskeleton and turned away from its prey to lunge at him. Jagged fangs spread wide and aimed for his throat; Link simply backpedalled calmly and raised his sword edge-wise to its eight-eyed face, letting it cut itself on the honed steel. Yowling in both rage and agony, it withdrew its squat head only to lash out with a hairy appendage, missing his shoulder by a fraction of an inch.

Ducking to the right, the Hylian moved underneath it and dragged the Master Sword across the unprotected flesh of its segmented body. A squeal gargled in its throat, and the Skulltula stumbled back from him toward the open window. Link pursued it doggedly, determined to either drive it off for good or kill it outright. His blade bit into its eyes twice before the creature turned and pushed its way through the window out into the night, a trail of oozing green blood following it as it fled.

Link glared after it a few moments to be sure it wasn't coming back, his veins on fire with a kind of feral anger that he couldn't explain. Wrenching back control of his body from the sensation, the hero ran to where he had first struck the Skulltula.

There was only one thing—or person—in the room that monster could have been attacking.

"Tanya. Tanya!" His heart froze for a moment when his eyes found her still body, lying on the bed and halfway wrapped in spider silk. "Oh Goddesses." _'Please don't let her be dead.'_

Impaz appeared in the doorway as the Master Sword finished cutting through the last of the webbing. The Shekiah stood there a moment, watching him check Tanya over, before querying, "What happened?"

"Skulltula," he answered tersely. His hands moved expertly across the girl's back, first checking for a pulse and then any wounds. "One of the Lost Woods varieties." Anxiety exploded into full-blown panic in his chest when he turned her over and found a thumb-long slice along her right collarbone; a curse greeted this discovery.

Impaz's sharp voice cut through the terror that threatened to overwhelm him. "Link, stop. First off, you need to calm down. Secondly, you have the means to heal her. The princesses have trained you to use your power; you know what to do."

Link rocked back and sat on his heels beside the bed. Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths to steady himself and felt the Triforce's soothing aura flow through him again. _'Just trust the holy magic,'_ he repeated the ancient words to himself. _'Tell it what you want it to do, and it'll do it.'_

But what to do…

"What do you suggest?" he asked Impaz, opening his eyes again. Heat burned beneath his hand when he placed it on Tanya's forehead; when he moved it to her shoulder, though, he could feel the icy poison spreading like oil through her veins, thick and potent.

"The Triforce's power to purge the poison, and Nayru's Love to prevent it from coming back. Work in sections, starting with her heart."

_'Right. Break it down, then the shielding will barricade the rest of the contaminant so it can be destroyed.'_ He winced as a tremor ran through the girl's body. Serious convulsions would start in another minute or two; she didn't have much time.

Another deep breath steadied him, then he closed his eyes and delved into the magic swirling through him.

Light and energy nearly burst through him as he tapped the deep lake of the Triforce's power. Gritting his teeth, Link forced the explosive waterfall to funnel where it was needed, flowing into the structure of magic he mapped through Tanya's body. Nayru's Love formed a cage over her heart like a filter, keeping the poison from circulating further. As it backed up at that barrier, controlled whips of power destroyed the toxin. Once that threat was eliminated, he moved to the source of the problem and decontaminated that, too.

A last diagnostic sweep of her body satisfied him that the venom was purged; then he capped the magic and pulled away.

The first thing to greet him when he stood was dizziness. Staggering sideways at the unexpected disorientation, Link had to lean against the headboard to prevent himself from falling over.

"Gonna feel that one 'n the mornin'," he mumbled, closing his eyes and putting a hand to his head.

He felt more than heard Impaz move to his side, and guessed she was checking over Tanya herself when she didn't immediately say anything. Then: "Her pulse is a little unsteady, but she will be fine."

Kneeling in an attempt to still the spinning sensation in the pit of his stomach, Link released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. The feeling that followed it as it flowed from him like a hurricane wind was pure relief. "Nayru, Din, and Farore."

Impaz laid a hand on his shoulder. Cracking one eye open, he looked up to see a half stern, half concerned expression across the normally smooth Shekiah mask. "You could have not rushed into saving her so soon."

Despite the ache it created in his temples, Link glared at her with both eyes. "I could have let her _die_. Would _that_ have been more satisfactory, Impaz?"

Just as he spoke, the adrenaline that had been keeping him upright vanished. Its absence left a pounding in his head, a metallic taste on his tongue, and his vision swimming. He groaned and leaned against the bed, thinking _'Maybe I _did_ overdo it on the magic_'; and then the blessed darkness of exhaustion swept over him.


	6. Differe

**A/N:** FINALLY. Rewrite of the current-to-the-previous-draft-chapter is done. O_o And just in time to go off to college with limited time/internet to write. Yaaaaaaay... Nah. These charries are too persistent to totally kill the writing initiative, haha. Just...yeah. Time WILL be limited. Fo' sho'. Juuust warning you.

Chap 7 IS in the works, though, have no fear! We'll see how soon into school I can pick it up. Will probably be a while because there is a TON of AWESOMENESS hitting the fan in the next chap. x3P After a slow start. ^^; But for now-enjoy chap 6! ^^

* * *

**Chapter 6: _Differe_**

_Her little legs shook with exhaustion and effort as she stumbled after the adult shape before her, pulled onward by a large but gentle hand locked around her own. She wanted to cry, wanted to call out for her mother, but her protector had made it very clear that she couldn't make a sound. After all, noise told the horrible flame-shadow monsters where they were, and Kelly wanted to stay as far away from them as possible._

_Her rescuer was helping her to do that. Darkness enveloped them as they darted through the night, away from the village. The farther from the inferno they drew, the brighter the gibbous moon's light shone on them, illuminating a welcome path into the forest. Those horrid sounds died into whispers and then silence as the undergrowth thickened._

_Kelly wasn't sure how long they had been running before she felt the sense of security that her protector gave her starting to fade. They were so far into the woods now that the moonlight barely lit the ground before her small feet, and the pair was forced to walk or risk being tripped._

_In another instant, and only for that instant, her sight vanished. The next moment, she regained it to see that she was all alone on a narrow, winding path. There was no sight of her former guardian, not even a footprint or shivering branch to show where he had gone. Fear leapt up her throat at the foreboding air pressing down on her, threatening to strangle her if she did not release the emotion. No matter how she tried, though, she could force no more sound than a whimper past the lump in her throat._

_A flash of beady orange eyes and a hairy, segmented body encouraged her scream to emerge._

Tanya's scream echoed in her mind as her body instinctively shuddered and snapped to life, kicking and thrashing against her bindings. Her heart raced with terror and hopelessness, certain she would never escape the nightmare that threatened her.

A sharp voice cut through the haze of exhaustion blanketing her senses. Blinking her wide, dilated eyes, the girl stilled her struggles and simply took in her surroundings.

Her "bindings", she realized sheepishly, had been the sheets, which had apparently twisted around her sometime during the night. Following the arm connected to the soft hand resting on her shoulder, Tanya met Impaz's expressionless mahogany eyes. The Shekiah said nothing, merely retracted her hand once certain the girl wouldn't return to her previous state of panic. As she stepped back from the bed, Tanya let her eyes move to the rest of the room, which was the same as she remembered it from last night except for a few significant exceptions.

First off were the odd silky threads scattered along the floor by her bed. Dark stains dotted the floorboards, and though she hadn't been able to see if they were already there last night due to her tunnel vision, she was certain they weren't old.

And Link lay on the floor across the room from her, covered in a few extra blankets with his head pillowed on a bedroll.

Upon realizing what these exceptions meant, Tanya gulped down the returning sense of terror. _'So it _wasn't_ all a dream.'_

One blue eye flicked open, as if he had already been conscious for some time. A moment later he pulled his legs under him and sat up, running a hand through his messy hair absently. Tanya couldn't keep her wide eyes from flicking to his bare chest. She shouldn't have been surprised, considering his previously-demonstrated strength and agility, but the muscle tone he sported would have made most guys she knew envious.

_'If only they knew how much of a secretive jerk he can be,'_ she admonished herself, deliberately turning her gaze away from the hero.

"What's wrong?" Link questioned. His voice made it sound like a general question of concern instead of one directed at her—for which she was thankful.

When Tanya didn't say anything, Impaz ventured, "She's just a little confused."

The girl gulped, the blurred memories of the previous night returning to her. She wrapped her arms around herself and drew her knees up, feeling tears threatening her composure.

_'I _hate_ spiders.'_

"I—I thought the s-spider was still here."

Link blinked, letting his hand fall into his lap, and looked out the window. "It's gone, now."

He made a move to get up, but Impaz's expression hardened. A wave of her hand, and he was pushed back down before he could so much as get to his knees. Tanya assumed she had used magic, and almost chuckled at the expression of mixed annoyance and chastisement on Link's face.

"I think not," the sage warned. "You fell flat on your face after saving damsel-in-distress over here. You are most certainly not well enough to leave this room after five hours' sleep."

Link looked like he wanted to argue, but resorted instead to pressing his lips together in a thin line and glaring at Impaz. The Shekiah simply crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, no emotion seeping past her stoic mask.

It took a moment for Tanya's memory-tormented mind to register Impaz's exact meaning and the implications that had. When she did, she stared at Link and queried, "You…killed it?"

He met her gaze, his blue eyes dropping the glare for a more neutral expression—the one she recognized as his impenetrable, piercing mask. After some hesitation, he replied, "Of course."

"And cleaned out the poison it injected," Impaz added, vaguely waving a hand for emphasis.

Tanya's eyes widened again. _'He—he…what?'_ She glanced from the silk and stains on the floor to Link and back, slowly coming to a conclusion. _'He…did…'_ The girl closed her eyes, head bowed slightly and one hand coming up to lightly grasp her pendant. "Thank you," she whispered.

She didn't look up as the door quietly opened and closed; that had to be Impaz, because no audible footsteps had preceded it. In the silence, she concentrated on steeling herself for the conversation sure to follow now that she and Link were alone.

"You…saved my life," she murmured, opening her eyes to peek at Link's expression.

He was staring at her intensely, his eyes shimmering as if conflicting emotions were threatening to break the mask. "Of course," he repeated.

Tanya bit her lip, picking at the blanket draped over her knees. "You didn't have to," she observed. _'But I'm glad you did,'_ she added silently. Her body tingled unpleasantly where she could remember the spider rubbing against her skin; she defiantly stifled a shudder.

Shrugging, he explained, "It's my job to protect anybody in Hyrule who's coming under attack. That person just happened to be you."

"But why all the trouble over me?" Tanya questioned with a hint of petulance. How could he be so…_casual_ about it? "One person you randomly pass by, help out, and never see again I could understand. But me… I believe that's the third time now you've done more than normal to keep me from harm." She met his eyes with a half-pleading, half-demanding expression. "Why?"

Link immediately looked away, the muscles in his jaw visibly tight. "It's my job," he insisted tersely, a hint of bitterness on his tongue.

_'Would you _please_ stop repeating yourself? I _get_ it already! That's _not _helping your cause any.'_ Tanya rested crossed arms on her knees, narrowing her eyes and frowning at the object of her frustrations. He was going to do _anything_ to avoid that topic, wasn't he? Well, he couldn't get away with it forever; either he got over whatever it was that held him back, or they went around in circles like a cat chasing a mouse and forgot about their enemy until it blindsided them.

"There's a difference between doing your job, and going beyond the call of duty," she pointed out in a low growl.

Glancing over at her, briefly, he retorted, "The call of duty is relative to the task at hand."

"So you're saying I'm just an assigned task?" she demanded disbelievingly. "Then I'm apparently a pretty significant one, too, by the way you're acting. But let me tell _you_ something, Mr. Important Hero—" Emphasized with a stabbing finger in his direction, her voice a half-growl. "—I'm not just some "task" that needs completing in order to move on to the next quest. I'm a _person_, too, and I'm not exactly roses and rainbows about being in the dark on what the hell task I'm supposed to _be_ to you."

Link swiftly stood, surprising her with the feral grace in that one fluid motion. The ice in his eyes negated her observation, however. "Then maybe you should figure out who _you_ are first before coming to me!"

Silence filled the room. Tanya simply stared at him, mouth slightly agape in shock as his words sank in. He quickly broke off their connected gazes, leaning down to pick up the blanket and pillow he'd been using. She was still frozen as he strode across the small room with a wolfish pace and yanked open the door.

He suddenly halted, though, as if coming against an invisible wall; Impaz stood in the doorway, a hand on one hip and the faintest trace of disapproval in her eyes. One eyebrow twitched upward the slightest bit as her gaze swept the space between Link and Tanya; the latter avoided her eyes while the former simply stared back in stoic defiance.

After a moment, she cleared her throat to break the silence. "Ralon has kindly prepared us breakfast." Eyeing Link's state of undress and Tanya's disheveled appearance, she added, "You should probably fix yourselves up before coming downstairs, however."

Tanya couldn't see Link's expression from where she was, but Impaz's stern glare at him was enough. After a few moments' stand-off, the Shekiah gave a barely-noticeable nod and stepped aside. In an instant, the hero vanished around the corner toward his room; his door didn't quite slam when he shut it.

Impaz exhaled quietly—what Tanya guessed was as close to a sigh as she got—and stepped into the room. Turning her attention to Tanya, she said, "I put a new change of clothes for you on that table." She gestured toward the window and said table.

The girl ducked her head, wrapping the pendant's chain around her fingers restlessly. "Impaz? Why does he have to be so _frustrating_ sometimes?"

Her eyes softened at the pain in Tanya's voice. She carefully sat on the mattress beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders. After a few moments' thinking, the warrior said, "Let me tell you something about Link. It's been a while since he's had to focus on anything other than fighting. So I think you're being as frustrating and confusing to him as he is to you."

Tanya frowned at that, perplexed. "_I'm_ being frustrating?" she repeated disbelievingly.

The woman offered her a mysterious smile and patted her shoulder. "I think you'll find there's more to Link than first meets the eye. But you have to be patient, alright?"

When Tanya didn't answer, Impaz squeezed her shoulder sympathetically and stood. "I'm sorry, Tanya." After another few moments of silence, the Shekiah silently left and closed the door behind her.

Sighing, the girl hung her head and tangled her fingers in her hair, yanking her braid free to let the loose strands cover her face. Her entire body tensed with the uncontainable emotion burning through her, fixing a draconic snarl on her lips.

_'Damn heroes are never like they're supposed to be, are they?'_

Finding nothing else in the room to unleash her frustration on, her fist connected with the pillow next to her.

By the time Tanya regained some limited control of her anger and changed, Link had already beat her downstairs. He was nursing a mug of Lon Lon milk and refused to glance up at her prowling down the stairs. Impaz turned from a window in the south wall, arms crossed and expression smooth as stone, as Tanya approached. No one spoke for a while; she surveyed the table in the silence, finding it three places already set and plates of fresh eggs and bread on the table.

"Go ahead, Tanya. We won't start on the serious conversation until you have some food in you," Impaz urged, a hint of a smile tugging at her mask.

A shy and slightly-embarrassed smile passing over her face, Tanya obeyed, seating herself across from Link and scooping a generous heap of scrambled eggs onto her plate. The Shekiah stepped up to the table and sat at Tanya's left as the girl dug in with a hearty appetite. She tried to ignore Link's eyes on her, but no matter how much she focused on the food she could still feel his piercing gaze.

At last, Link broke the silence. "You said the Twilight's moved closer, Impaz?"

Tanya paused as her fork touched the plate again, looking up at the woman questioningly but dreading the answer. Impaz exhaled slowly and nodded, eyes fixed on a point in the middle of the table. "Yes. I estimate we have two days until it overtakes the ranch. I'm also fairly certain those Shadow Beasts are following us, as well as a good number of Bulbins."

Tanya dared a quick look over at Link, his words from their first encounter whispering through her mind. He only glanced up and met her eyes for a moment before going back to nursing his mug. _'"Following us"…?'_ She mentally shook herself. _'No. They're just…moving the Twilight further west and south. It's the logical thing to do. Right?_

_'So why do I get a bad feeling about this?'_

_"So what's the plan?"_

Both Link and Tanya looked up at Midna's voice, finding the shadow imp floating just above the middle of the table with arms crossed. Tanya gaped at her, slightly shocked at the ethereal manifestation, while Link answered. "We keep moving." Propping his chair back on two legs, he explained, "I figure as long as we can reach Kokiri Forest before the Curtain, we'll be safe. We can recoup in the village and use the Lost Doors to sneak out through Kakariko. If we're lucky, we can protect Faron, too."

Feeling a little lost, Tanya frowned and turned her gaze on Link. "Are you sure we can outrun it?"

The hero dropped his chair back onto all fours and stood, draining his mug. "If we ride hard, yes."

"We're not starting now, Link. It's too late in the day," Impaz said icily.

Tanya glanced between Impaz and Link in bewilderment as they stared each other down, not sure exactly what was going on. She met Midna's eyes as the silence drew out unbearably long; the imp merely shrugged, as confused as Tanya.

At last Link exhaled heavily and conceded, "Alright. We'll spend the night, and be on the way to Zora River by dawn. The Deku Tree can hold off the Twilight with Faron's help, but it doesn't do us any good if the Curtain catches up to us first or the Beasts capture Faron."

Before anyone could argue, the hero stalked away from the table and through the door to the outside.

—

Link flopped back into the haystack with a sigh, rubbing a hand over his face wearily. The wolf inside him was pacing, demanding to be released, but he had neither the where nor the how to do so. He wondered if it was feeding off the chaotic emotions moving with the force of a whirlpool inside him, restless because _he_ was agitated.

"Dammit, Kel. Why don't you remember?" he growled, eyes tightly shut with a white-knuckled fist pressed to his forehead.

_'Because she was too young when she left,'_ his conscience answered with a sigh.

The hero held his breath for a moment, then slowly—painstakingly—released it in increments. His hand followed the exhalation down, until it rested in a loose fist atop his thigh. The built-up anxiety and guilt only backed off slightly, but it was enough to pull him from the brink.

With another sigh, Link leaned back into the hay, resting an arm over his face. He hadn't come that close to losing control in a while; too many memories better left forgotten were starting to surface. Concentrating on his breathing again, he began to systematically push the images and emotions back into the recesses from whence they had come.

Some time later, a sudden spike in the stable's quiet atmosphere snapped him from his meditative state. Propping himself up on his elbows, the boy quickly sorted through the constant environmental noise of shuffling equine hooves and anxious huffing until he found the cause for his startle reflex. Disguised under the other sounds were human footfalls.

"Hey, easy there; settle down, guys," Tanya's now-familiar voice soothed the animals.

Link exhaled quietly. _'Of course she would try to find me, wouldn't she?'_ His brow furrowed with some confusion as her footsteps moved to the far end of the barn—away from his hiding place and toward the joint tack- and-feed room. _'What's she up to?'_

Curious, he quietly shifted position to his knees and then his stomach. Stretched out to the edge of the loft now, he carefully peered over the edge and down onto the center aisle. Tanya wasn't immediately within sight, but he could hear her moving around in the equipment room. A few seconds later, she emerged carrying a twine-wrapped square of tightly-packed straw. Her longbow and quiver were slung over opposite shoulders.

_'She's going to practice?'_ he wondered with some astonishment. A small smile curved his lips. _'That girl sure is full of surprises, isn't she?'_

As soon as she had left the barn, the hero got to his feet and headed for the ladder leading to ground-level. It was about time he tested her archery prowess.

—

Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the target, a growl of irritation growing in her throat as she nocked another arrow. The previous arrow's blaze-orange fletching taunted her from its final resting place just low of her makeshift bull's-eye. Taking a deep breath, Tanya sighted down the shaft and smoothly drew back her hand so it sat anchored against her cheek, then released the projectile.

Less than a moment later, the _thunk_ as it nestled in the center of the packed straw rewarded her patience. Exhaling with some degree of relief, she drew another arrow from the quiver over her shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

The girl almost visibly flinched at the sudden intrusion on her concentration. Scowling, she briefly cast a narrow-eyed glance at Link before nocking the projectile in her hand. The familiar motion of pulling back the drawstring focused her mind and steadied her hand; shortly after, the arrow joined its fellows in the straw bed. "How do you _think_ I am?"

She had another arrow nocked, drawn, and fired in the time it took him to answer. "Frustrated, by the looks of things."

_'Gee, what tipped you off?'_ Tanya lowered her longbow to turn a full glare on Link. "Y'_think_?"

He cleared his throat self-consciously, then gestured at her target. "You're shooting very well."

The girl merely grunted acknowledgement—that had been a deliberate change of topic—and drew her last arrow from her quiver. She could hear his boot scuff the dirt as she raised her bow and pulled back the string. After releasing its load, she let her hands slowly fall to her sides. "I…wanted to brush up a little before we head out again," she admitted with some hesitance, plucking at the bowstring.

One of his eyebrows rose skeptically, but when he spoke it was with amused condescension. "You think something's going to happen?"

_'Damn his cocky self-assurance.'_ Sighing more in exasperation than anxiety, she explained, "I do worry. The Twilight's really close, and those monsters…" She shook her head, walking away from him to retrieve her arrows. "We can't underestimate them."

"Hmm…" Tanya was halfway through pulling the third arrow from the hay bale before he spoke again. "Well, if you're unsure of your preparedness…how about a little challenge?"

She paused to look over her shoulder at Link, now holding a strung bow of his own. Blinking a few times, the girl also realized he had a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder, exactly as she did. _'How did I miss that before?'_ Suspicious, Tanya questioned, "What's the catch?"

"Catch?" he asked in a tone of amusement tinged by some confusion.

She rolled her eyes at the smirk she could see threatening his normally stoic expression. "Yeah. The catch: the "however"; the "unless"; the "only if". Under what conditions?"

The smirk grew into a full grin that eerily reminded her of Midna. "That target. Thirty paces. Only the center ring counts. First to miss loses."

Despite herself, Tanya felt a smirk crossing her face. _'Piece of cake.'_

"You're on."

After retrieving her last arrow, Tanya followed Link away from the target, counting her steps under her breath. At the required distance she stopped and turned to lock her eyes on the distant not-bale of hay. She quietly sucked in a suddenly-nervous breath, telling herself the distance wasn't any farther than she had practiced at before.

_'But you hadn't been shooting against the Hero of Time, either,'_ a voice muttered in the back of her mind.

"Ladies first," said hero offered non-chalantly.

Tanya barely graced him with a piercing glare before flicking her eyes back to the target and raising her bow to the ready. Steadying herself with a breath, she knocked the arrow still in her hand and sighted.

_'Just like home, just like home, just like home—'_

The arrow hit just right of center, still in the middle ring.

She controlled her exhale with a will, refusing to watch as Link smoothly knocked his own arrow. A second later, it punctured the hay with an inaudible _fwump_ an inch or two to the inside of her arrow.

Frowning, and pushing down all her roiling emotions—dislike and frustration the most prevalent among them—Tanya brought her bow level with the target again.

Five minutes and two nearly-empty quivers later, Tanya was having more trouble than she would admit controlling that frustration. Link had matched her shot for shot—or should she say _she_ had matched _him_. The next shot she was almost careless about lining up; it arced slightly low and right, dangerously close to the edge of the center ring.

Grinding her teeth with mounting irritation—mostly at herself—Tanya finally spared a glance at Link as he more carefully aimed. Somehow the first thought she had was how unusually close they were standing…for archery, anyway. If she were to stretch her arms over her head and out at just the slightest angle…

_'I think I've been hanging around Midna too much…'_ she thought unrepentantly, resisting the urge to grin wickedly.

Before she could act on the impulse, however, he had released the arrow, punching the target at slightly left of center. After taking her next shot—much more carefully than the last one—she waited until Link was intently focusing on his aim. Then, feigning a yawn, she not quite threw her arms out to the side—"inadvertently" striking Link's arm just as he was releasing the bowstring.

Considering she had technically cheated, Tanya couldn't help the thrill of satisfaction that ran through her when the afflicted arrow landed on the far right edge of the hay bale.

_'Serves him right for being all secretive and overprotective and high-and-mighty!'_

"What was _that_ for?" the other archer demanded incredulously.

"What was what?" she returned innocently, not daring to look at him. She just might burst into laughter if she did.

There was a moment spent in silence where Tanya swore she could feel his death-glare. Then Link sighed; she got the distinct impression he was rolling his eyes and shaking his head at her. "Nevermind," he muttered, stalking away to gather up his arrows.

Was it just her, or was there a note of amusement behind the bitterness?

"_What?_" she demanded playfully, following him back to the target as he knelt to pull his arrows from the hay. "If you're looking for an apology, I'm sorry. I didn't realize… _What_?"

Link was shaking his head, but when he looked over his shoulder at her there was a small smile on his face.

_'An honest-to-God smile!'_ she repeated to herself disbelievingly.

Apparently her reaction was hilarious, because the smile became a laugh. When he had stopped, he pushed himself upright and said, "It was probably for the better I missed that shot, anyway, or we would have been out here until it was too dark to see and _still _without a definitive winner."

Caught off-guard, Tanya found herself returning his smile with an amused smirk. "Guess I'm really not that bad a shot, hm?" she teased, plucking her bowstring.

He unstrung his bow before replying. "I suppose not. You could probably outshoot the younger Gerudo right now…" The half-smirk, half-smile reemerged. "…at least at stationary targets."

She pouted at the back-handed compliment and started unstringing her own bow as an excuse to hide her expression. "Gee, thanks for that," she muttered to herself.

"Hey…"

Tanya almost jumped at the feel of his hand on her shoulder; she quickly turned her head to look at him, startled and mentally cursing the fact she had forgotten how sharp his hearing was. At her reaction, he quickly snatched his hand back, eyes hooded and cast downward—avoiding looking at her.

She blinked. His mood swings were starting to unnerve her.

"I'm…sorry. About this morning." His hand unconsciously moved to rub the back of his neck, and he angled his gaze more to the side. "I…don't exactly think before I speak, sometimes. And I know you were hurt by that. So…I'm sorry."

Not quite comprehending what he was saying for a few moments, Tanya simply stared at him. As soon as his meaning sank in, she looked down and rubbed her thumb along the smooth wood of her bow. "I…guess I should apologize, too. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

Link's hand suddenly appeared in her vision. She looked up quickly, gauging his expression and the hand that looked suspiciously like a peace offering. From what she could see, there was only sincerity in the gesture.

"Truce?"

It wouldn't get her any answers to her questions. But at least the trip to Kokiri Forest wouldn't be nearly so awkward…

With a small nod to herself, Tanya firmly clasped Link's hand and gave it a strong shake. "Truce."**  
**


	7. Insidiae

**A/N: **YAAAAAAAAAAY I got another chapter done! Yes! *does a dance* Gwen is on a roll, it seems. *knocks on wood* Helps the latter part of this is one of my favorite scenes. At least in this arc. That and the next chapter. I finally managed to push through the stuff I don't like so much and be satisfied about it, so when I hit the fight scene I was like "...OMGIGOTHEREYAAAAAAAY!" =D

Ahem. I will stop squeeing now and let you enjoy the ride. Before I give any more of it away. ^^ xD

* * *

**Chapter 7: _Insidiae_**

"You're rather calm."

Raising an eyebrow, Link glanced over at Impaz, who had inexplicably ridden forward from her usual station. "Oh? What makes you say that?"

The smallest hint of a smirk graced her lips. "Tanya's not glaring daggers in your back today. I'd say that's an improvement." She returned his look, the raised eyebrow somehow managing to look natural yet unnerving on the Shekiah. "What did you do?"

The note of amusement in the question forced him to look away, suddenly embarrassed though not entirely sure why. He curled his fingers experimentally, testing the familiar fit of his gloved gauntlets before speaking. "It's amazing what a friendly archery contest will do."

"So that's what you were up to yesterday," Impaz mused. When Link didn't respond, she continued, "Yet you're being awful quiet about it."

He let a small moment of silence develop before he answered. "I've been…thinking."

Impaz chuckled once. "What about? I must admit, even knowing you as long as I have, you're still quite the mystery."

Link closed his eyes; even as used to the feeling as he was, the emptiness that threatened to swallow him at the Shekiah's remark about being a mystery was difficult to ignore. "Tanya's…predicament. What's going to happen next. What we can do. What we _don't_ know." Taking a breath, he admitted, "I'm worried."

"The great Hero of Time? Worried?" Her voice was still tinged with amusement. When he didn't respond and his mood didn't lift, Impaz clasped his shoulder reassuringly. "We can get through this. Once we reach the castle, you and Zelda will figure out what to do."

"So we will," Link murmured, staring down at Epona's mane. _'I'll _have_ to. I can't go on like this.'_

Having said all that could be said, Impaz slowed her horse and dropped back behind Tanya. After a moment to recompose himself, Link turned his attention to the worn trail ahead. The Zora River cut like a knife-edged ribbon of blue a short ride ahead, glimmering as brightly as the Master Sword's blade in the midmorning sunlight. Link allowed himself a small smile when he turned in the saddle and saw Tanya's expression.

"Never seen a river before?" he said with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes and pinned him with an exasperated look. "Mountain rivers aren't the same; you should know that."

Slightly taken aback by the reaction, Link said amicably, "I'm sorry, but who's the most traveled Hylian here?"

He was greeted with the raised-eyebrow look to which he was becoming fast acquainted. For a moment he was afraid she was going to call him out on his pathetic comeback, but she merely reminded, "Aren't we on a truce?"

Rolling his eyes, he nonetheless refrained from retorting and turned forward in the saddle. Shortly after, he reined Epona in at the top of a rise, the last before the land sloped sharply toward Zora River and the enormous bridge connecting the distant banks. "Once we cross the bridge, we should be six hours' steady ride from the forest's edge. Once we get under its branches, we'll be within the Deku Tree's protection and can relax a little while we plan our last run to the capitol," he explained as Tanya and then Impaz halted on either side of Epona.

Tanya craned her head around to survey the horizon behind them; the gray shimmer of the Curtain could be faintly seen just beyond Lon Lon Ranch's walls. Worry clouded her eyes, the same expression that he'd seen so many times on Zelda's face. As Impaz turned her horse around to cover their ride over the bridge, Link carefully rested a comforting hand on Tanya's shoulder.

"We can outrace it. We've got a pretty steady lead," he said quietly, hoping to bring her out of whatever frame of mind she was in. They couldn't afford to lose focus now, when they were so close to their goal.

Apparently he had misinterpreted the reason for her worry. She shifted her gaze from the Curtain to her saddle horn, twisting the reins around in her fist. "I just…worry. About the people we're leaving behind. I can't see how they'll get out safely—why _we_ should, when they can't." Her eyes suddenly met his, and he was caught off-guard by the desperateness for answers in them. "What kind of people are we to save our own skins when we can do so much to help?"

His grip on Tanya's shoulder tightened a little as a small knot of guilt formed in the pit of his stomach—one that had always been there, but always pushed down for the better. _'How did she manage to peg that?'_ he wondered.

Before giving her his answer, he cleared his throat and kept a sympathetic tone only through force of will. "If we had the time and ability to help everyone individually, I would. But I don't. And the best way to help everyone in the long run is to fight whatever's controlling this." He returned his hand to the reins, forcing himself to look Tanya in the eye. "Which means we have to keep moving, or we'll never have a shot at that, and we won't be able to help _anybody_."

After a moment of internal struggle visible in her eyes, Tanya looked away. Her voice was quiet with resignation. "I understand."

Link couldn't keep watching her anymore for the guilt that threatened to overwhelm him.His conscience nagged him mercilessly as he kicked Epona into a trot and then a canter down the slope. _'She doesn't know how the world works like you do, Hero. You don't have the right to break her like that.'_

_'…But what choice do I have?'_

Once over the bridge, the pair settled in to a comfortable lope across the floodplain toward Kokiri Forest, a distant stripe of green lining the base of russet red mountains in the west. Despite himself, Link could feel a flood of memories pressing in on his conscious thought: arguing with Mido; storytelling from the Deku Tree; playing with Saria in the maze of the Lost Woods; fighting Ganon's phantom in the bowels of the Forest Temple…

Scowling at himself, Link shoved the memories back into the recesses of his mind. He forced himself to concentrate on something else, slowing Epona to a trot in order to better appreciate his surroundings. A hawk's cry drew his attention, and he shaded his eyes with one hand to look up into the early afternoon sun. The raptor was little more than a tiny silhouette-shaped dot at its height, but he could clearly spot it against the blue sky.

The warrior drew in a deep breath, eyes closed. _'I wish I had your wings.'_

"Kinda makes me wish I had had the time to test my wings, before," Tanya commented wistfully, noticing the direction his attention had taken.

Somehow, Link felt a smile tugging at his mouth. The way she had unknowingly echoed his thoughts, but with an optimistic note, lightened the shadow that had threatened his mood. "You might yet get the chance before this is over."

Her response was slightly chagrined. "I'm trying not to think about that."

"I've found that occupying your mind with something else sometimes helps." He glanced at her with some amusement, even as he wondered why he was thinking about offering such advice. "For instance, music."

The look Tanya gave him made Link doubly question why he was talking about this. "Music," she repeated doubtfully.

"Yes, music," he said defensively. "Like sitars and ocarinas and…singing."

Surprise flickered across her face, quickly overshadowed by fascination. "You _sing_?"

Link could feel the first hints of warmth in his face at her reaction. He made it a point not to brag about his singing, especially because he preferred not to draw attention to himself. But it did make long, lonely rides a little less tedious.

"Every once in a while," he admitted with a tiny shrug and a sheepish smile. Out of curiosity, he asked, "And you don't?"

"Ha! Me? I couldn't sing my way into a three-year-olds' choir." She shook her head self-deprecatingly. "No, I'm no good at music. I'd rather stick to sketching."

Eyeing her curiously, he prodded, "What kind of sketching? Still-life?"

Her lips curved upward the slightest bit—a tiny smile. "Not really. I prefer something with motion and life. I draw lots of animals and scenes, like freezing a battle in mid-strike."

He whistled quietly, impressed. "That takes skill—and talent." After a moment, he added with a laugh, "Maybe you could draw something for the Kokiri. They'd probably adore you."

Now it was Tanya's turn to duck her head and blush. "I'm really not _that_ good," she mumbled, though smiling.

"You don't _have_ to be, with ten-year-olds," he countered good-naturedly. "They'd be impressed with a stick figure in sand."

Her smile widened momentarily, and she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Then, after a pause, she queried, "What are they like—the Kokiri?"

Link suppressed a sigh, letting his grin fade a little. Steeling himself against the memories again, he began to describe the child-like race's village and their guardian, the Deku Tree. Tanya listened raptly, nodding as he explained and interjecting with delighted laughter at anecdotes about his time in the village.

Eventually, however, the conversation turned more serious. As they approached the forest's edge, Tanya asked, "So, what exactly _is_ the Lost Woods? Haunted?"

Exhaling quietly, Link amended, "In a way. But the hauntings are all side-effects of the Woods' original purpose: to protect both the village and the Temple. If you're not supposed to be there, the Woods will turn you around until you're so lost, you become a shell of what you once were—or worse, a Stalfos or Stalchild."

Seeing her face start to pale at his description, he hurriedly amended, "But we'll be fine. We have the Deku Tree's blessing, so we don't have to worry about that."

She _hmph_'d doubtfully, rubbing one arm with her opposite hand. "I sure hope so," she muttered just loud enough for Link to hear.

All thoughts Link had of retorting vanished when he saw what—or who—was waiting for them at the forest's edge.

"Saria!" he shouted, grinning hugely as he urged Epona into a canter to cross the remaining two hundred yards to the trees.

The Kokiri girl, who appeared to be eleven at first glance, returned his grin and his greeting as the massive horse slid to a stop in front of her. "It's good to see you again, Link! I trust your trip was relatively uneventful?" she questioned with a hint of cheek and a humored sparkle in her light green eyes.

Link laughed sardonically, dismounting quickly. "I wish. I'm the most wanted piece of meat out here to those monsters, unfortunately. They really can't seem to leave me well enough alone," he bemoaned jokingly.

Saria chuckled, walking past Epona's head to wrap her arms around Link's waist. Her head barely reached the bottom of his ribs, making it a little difficult for him to return the hug. He settled for patting her back and ruffling her chin-length green hair instead.

She pulled away as Tanya halted Katara on the other side of them, "I'm glad you're back, even if it's just for a visit," she said with a sad smile.

The shadow that always lurked in his heart shaded his eyes again; the smile he gave his childhood friend was only half-hearted. Desperate to shake off the mood, he nodded to Tanya as she dismounted. "Saria, this is Tanya. Tanya, meet Saria, the Sage of Forest and an old friend of mine."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Tanya greeted courteously, extending a hand for the petite Sage to shake.

"Likewise," Saria agreed, taking the proffered hand with her small one. Once their connected hands dropped away, she turned toward the entrance to the woods. "Well, we'd better get moving; we can catch up while we walk. Don't want to be caught outside the village after dark, Deku Tree's protection or not."

After so many years, Link hardly had to think about where he put his feet along the narrow trail. Epona followed him calmly as the trees swallowed them up, plunging them into semi-darkness broken only by occasional rays of sunlight piercing the thick canopy. Behind them, Tanya watched the undergrowth warily, and Katara stepped lightly with ears pricked for the first hint of danger.

Link shook his head slightly, amused by the girl's attitude. Saria glanced over at him curiously. "So? What's the deal with her, Hero-boy?"

Instantly, the amusement he'd felt evaporated. "It's…complicated," he said quietly, not looking at Saria. "You remember…the incident with Kel?"

The girl inclined her head understandingly, her mouth shaped into a silent _O_ of understanding. "So she's…?" He nodded; Saria sighed. "That's why the monster activity, then, isn't it?"

"I'm…actually not sure," Link admitted. "It does explain the activity in her world, but that's more a side-effect of what's going on here. The time-frame is about right for Ganon…but this Twilight stuff isn't."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "So you really think this isn't Ganon we're up against." At his nod, she turned back to the path and walked in silence for a few moments. "I can see why you spoke with me by Ocarina earlier, then. We can't predict this enemy like we can him. Have you spoken with the other Sages yet?"

He shook his head. "Only Impaz. Vanessa's going to speak with Marau, and we plan on stopping in Kakariko to warn the Shekiah and Darbus."

Saria nodded slowly. "I'll let Rauru know; he should be able to get a message ahead to Zelda." Her attention was suddenly drawn away from their conversation and to the path ahead. Link slowed as Saria did the same, wondering what had caught her attention.

He relaxed when a smile replaced her serious countenance. "I think you're in for a bit of a surprise, Link."

_'Uh oh.'_ "What is it now?" he questioned, half joking and half wary.

"Liiiink! You're back!"

Link laughed heartily at Navi's greeting, holding a hand out for the fairy to land on. "Well _someone_'s excited," he teased with a grin. His smile slowly faded as he watched her through the blue glow her wings gave off; she was catching her breath, hands on her knees and head bowed slightly. "Navi? What's wrong?"

She looked up quickly, her light-blue bangs falling in disorder before her worried eyes. "We've got a problem," she gasped between two breaths. "Listen."

The warrior frowned worriedly but did as his former guardian instructed. As soon as he concentrated, he realized could pinpoint the difference instantly; there was no laughter from the village. By now he should have been able to make out individual voices.

"What's wrong?" Tanya questioned from her place at his elbow.

"Something's disturbed the village," he murmured, dropping Epona's reins and slowly drawing the Master Sword. Navi nervously fluttered off his palm and into her customary place at his right shoulder as he stalked toward the edge of the trees. A moment later he heard Tanya hesitantly mimic him. Now Link was doubly glad he'd convinced her to learn to handle the sword he'd given her—at least she wouldn't slice herself instead of an opponent.

"Watch out!"

Navi's warning barely registered before he stepped out of the trees and something slammed him into the ground.

Adrenaline flooded his veins; honed instincts automatically tucked him into a side roll. The Master Sword met resistance halfway through its swing, drawing a bestial cry from his attacker.

He knew that sound.

Shadow Beast.

"Damn it," he hissed as the creature reared off of him from his blow. Link kicked both feet into its torso to shove it further away and off-balance. A moment later he was on his feet. Quickly glancing around him, he saw both Tanya and Saria were fighting four more Beasts.

"It's coming back, Link!"

He pivoted to meet its charge with a block, throwing his blade edge-first against the monster's clawed hands. His surprise when it stopped the blow without breaking stride nearly froze him. The hero pulled away before his foe could retaliate and circled it with new eyes; the Beast quickly reengaged, swiping at Link's legs. He easily leapt the strike, swinging vertically at its head as he landed.

The blow skidded harmlessly off its engraved helm with a metallic screech. At the same time, he faintly noticed that the din of battle behind him had receded. He pushed the thought out of his mind momentarily, moving to attack the Beast again—but found the creature had backed out of his blade's reach.

"I believe you're missing something, Hero."

A snarl of irritation on his face, Link whirled to face the source of the voice—and felt his blood freeze.

—

Tanya tried to hold as still as possible, but her whole body was shivering with fear and adrenaline. Not for the first time in the past minute, she was glad her captor had shoved her to her knees; if she were standing, she probably would have collapsed a few times already.

Now that the fighting had stopped, a deathly silence filled the clearing. It seemed as if even the woods knew what was happening and were staying as quiet as the Kokiri. Tanya's eyes were riveted on Link, however, and the most honest expressions she'd ever seen on him: surprise, suppressed anger, and—oddly enough—a hint of fear.

Her breath caught in her throat as she felt the flat of the dagger under her chin press upward, tilting her head. She could see Link's jaw tighten from here, and the anger in his eyes sparked. "I wonder where this pretty little ruby came from," crooned the dagger's owner. "Perhaps you could enlighten me, Hero?"

Link's countenance showed he was prepared to do anything _but_ that. For almost the first time since they'd left the Twilight, Tanya could see the wolf in him coming to the fore. He remained silent, letting his eyes speak for him.

That didn't satisfy their enemy. "Well?" he demanded simply. Tanya gasped and her body stiffened in pain when the dagger twisted, the edge scraping the sensitive skin under her jaw. Link moved a step toward them as if wanting to help, but the cordon of five Shadow Beasts around him and Saria shifted warningly.

"What's she to you?" The hero's voice was rough, laced with anger and uncertainty; she could tell he was stalling for time more than anything else with that question.

"It's not what she is to me, Hero—" the hostage-taker replied calmly, "—but to _you_."

Link finally looked down, his gaze meeting Tanya's. Dismay and confusion jolted her nerves when she found helplessness behind the anger in his eyes. And yet, somehow, she could see the outline of a plan falling into place in his mind.

_"Tanya. Do you trust me?"_

All the times he had obviously lied to her. All the times he had avoided her questions. All the times he had dragged her forward into the unknown with little to no explanation at all.

And yet…

_"I do."_

She could sense his relief even through the sharp clarity of his focus. _"When I tell you, I need you to push the dagger away and drop straight down. Understand?"_ A mental acknowledgement was all he needed—besides, she didn't dare move her head yet, anyway.

His eyes shifted up to meet her captor's again. There was no uncertainty, helplessness, or even a trace of fear in them now. Another moment went by, and then he gave the enemy his answer: "Every citizen of Hyrule is important to me."

There was just enough time for her to yell in her head, _"What do you_ mean_, "citizen of Hyrule"?"_

And then Link told her to go.

_"Now!"_

Tanya quickly snaked an arm between the black-robed hand holding the dagger to her throat, pushing down and away from her. She threw herself forward as something broke through the earth where she had been a fraction of a second earlier. As soon as she was out from under it, the girl scrambled to her feet; she moved to bolt, then realized there wasn't much of anywhere to go. Link and Saria were struggling viciously with all five Shadow Beasts, and their leader had vanished—but Tanya didn't know where her sword was, and her bow was still in its tube on Katara's saddle.

Even if she did have a weapon, she wasn't sure she could be much help right now, anyway. So she stood where she was, filled with anxious uncertainty as she watched the fight.

Her decision whether to join them or not was quickly made for her. One Beast unexpectedly went down with a dagger in its throat; Impaz had finally caught up and—in some way that Tanya didn't understand—pounced on her victim just when it turned to strike Saria.

With the first monster down, the two Sages teamed up against the other three, drawing away one which had been trying to get at Link's back. Tanya watched in amazement as the hero now laid the pressure on a single opponent, his countenance one of sharp focus.

It wasn't long before the Beast found itself outmaneuvered and overpowered, and the Master Sword ripped straight through its torso. Black blood coated the silver blade; Tanya swallowed thickly but couldn't look away as Link quickly pulled the sword and turned it on a Beast that had tried to sneak up on him.

Just as his weapon met the monster's claws, a series of wing beats ripped through the air. Tanya nearly fell, staggering almost drunkenly from the force of Teresa's landing—both due to the tremors and turbulence when she hovered briefly and set her hind feet on the ground. The dragon let loose a vicious roar as she swiped her claws bodily into a nearby Beast, severing its neck and most of one leg.

"Looks like you could use a hand, Link!" Vanessa yelled cheerily, waving from Teresa's back.

"No kidding!" Link returned a bit snappishly.

Tanya tried to hear Vanessa's retort—really, she did—but the day's exertions and sights were catching up to her. She gritted her teeth painfully and screwed her eyes shut, hands to her temples, as the last two Beasts let out agonizing screeches. That, Teresa's not-quite-roar, and the smell of blood threatened to rip her skull open.

Though feeling unable to handle it anymore, she fought to keep her eyes open and see the skirmish through to its finish. She only got a glimpse of Link breaking into a run toward her, though, before her internal self-defense mechanisms overrode her willpower; she slumped into unconsciousness shortly before Link reached her.

—

The moment the last Beast shrieked its death-cry, Link turned to check on Tanya. Immediately he could tell something was wrong—she was unsteady on her feet and had her forehead cupped in her hands. Worried, he quickly sheathed the Master Sword and started toward her, breaking into a run as she swayed on her feet even more.

He was just in time to catch her, clumsily sliding his arms under hers as she slumped forward against him. Once he had checked her pulse, he breathed a sigh of relief; she had simply fainted.

"Thank the Goddesses," he murmured, shifting her weight so he could gently lay her down.

He didn't look up as Vanessa and Teresa approached, gingerly fingering the scrape under Tanya's chin to assess the damage. "What's her problem?" Vanessa wondered a little snidely. "Can't handle a little blood?"

Link shot the dragon rider a warning glance. "She's not a combat veteran like we are, Ven," he reminded coldly, resting his hand on Tanya's forehead to check for potential fever. "This also isn't the first time she's had a bad run-in with these Beats, either," he added, partly to himself.

Finally he could feel Tanya stirring. Link removed his hand and sat back to give her space, watching her appraisingly as she groaned and rolled to her side. She lifted a hand to her head blearily, blinked, then fingered the slice on her chin with a wince. "What exactly just happened?"

"I think we're all wondering the same thing," Vanessa muttered, crossing her arms.

Link felt the same—but he knew where to get answers. "Midna? Any idea what those Beasts wanted—and who their leader was?" he asked as Impaz and Saria joined their huddle. Navi settled herself on his shoulder, a light-weight he only registered when her aura appeared in his peripheral vision.

The imp reluctantly emerged from his shadow, holding her hands behind her back and avoiding direct eye contact. "Honestly, after what that guy did to Tanya, I'm not really sure anymore," she confessed, idly kicking one foot. "I'd thought they were after the Spirit here, but they didn't take the opportunity. They bothered to set up an ambush—" Her eyes flicked to Tanya briefly. "—all for the chance to grab her."

All eyes shifted to Tanya—all except Link's. He scrutinized Midna critically for a few moments, then growled, "You're not telling us everything."

She looked down at the ground as everyone's gazes returned to her. Almost sheepishly, she said, "That guy with the helm? His name is Zant. He's controlling the Beasts and—like you saw—can somehow travel wherever he wants nearly instantaneously. That's all I know, I swear to the Divine Three!"

Link's attention moved to Tanya, who had shifted into a sitting position with her knees drawn up toward her chest. "So…they really _are_ after me," she said, her voice small.

For an instant, Link could hear a tiny child—an all-too-familiar child—in her tone. The memory nearly drowned him with its clarity and strength; for an instant, a three-year-old sat where Tanya did, fear in her eyes that should never have been. He tried to shake it off, but the image refused to leave the forefront of his thoughts as long as he looked at her. Finally he gave in and averted his eyes, his whole body tense from the struggle within him.

"Why do you think I've been protecting you?" he growled through gritted teeth.

Navi's tiny hand on his cheek cut through the storm in his mind. _"Link? Are you alright?"_

Realizing his emotions were getting the best of him, he surged to his feet and backed away from the huddle of people, shaking his head. "We…we can't let them ambush us like that again. Saria, let the Kokiri know we're here; I'll go secure the perimeter while you guys settle in. I'll be back as soon as I've checked the area and talked to the Deku Tree."


	8. Cordis Silvae

**A/N:** OMG an update! Imagine that! =D This chap took the LONGEST TIME to be resolved. Something just felt toooootally off about the whole thing. I think I've gotten it to a point I'm at least satisfied with it, though; the 4-month-ish break probably helped, although it felt more like it hurt the writing more than anything. But considering I'm like tearing away at it now where I wasn't moving forward at all before, I think it's made quite a bit of progress. =) But I think I'll let you determine that for yourself, haha! First, though-!

I got Skyward Sword for Christmas! =D The Plot Bunnies love it, so don't be surprised to see a SS fanfic up sometime in the future. And it's FREAKIN' EPIC! I was catching soooo many references throughout the story, the landscapes are gorgeous, the gameplay is near flawless, and omg Zelink cuteness! 8D There's this one scene, and, and, yeah. I won't spoil it for y'all. But it's tooooootally cute! ^.^ Oh, and the music CD that comes with it is _wiiiiiickeeeeeed _awesome. =DDD

Mkay I'm done. x3 Enjoy the chappie!

(Random note: 12 and a wake-up! =D lol)

* * *

**Chapter 8: **_**Cordis Silvae**_

Laughter echoed through the trees, dimly lit by fading rays of sun and the bonfire built up in the center of the village. The Kokiri played and told stories around the fire as if nothing had happened a few hours before, though their guardian fairies were sure to stick close to their charges. Further into the woods, frogs and crickets had already started up their nightly choir.

But Tanya didn't trust the sense of security the scenery instilled.

Her mind kept running in circles, always coming back to how easily Zant had caught her, the feel of the dagger against her throat and the fear that had immobilized her.

Above all, though, she remembered Link.

The helplessness. The confusion. Realizing that what he had said all along had been true—and finally admitting it to herself.

She sighed, hanging her head and leaning heavily against the platform's railing. _'Now what? I'm somehow important to these people—okay, I get that. But_ why_?'_ A scowl crossed her expression. _'And what about that "citizen of Hyrule" thing? What does Link know about…all this? Why isn't he telling me anything? Does he want me to grovel for it or something? Is he too good to share his knowledge with the likes of a mere mortal such as me?'_

Frustrated to no end, Tanya slammed an open palm against the railing, teeth bared in a soundless snarl. "God damn it, Link. What the hell is wrong with you?" she growled darkly, head lowered like a prowling dragon's. A moment later, her mind made up, she shoved away from the balustrade and stalked down the hanging walkways.

She was fed up with all these mysteries.

Tanya slowed her pace and halted as she rounded a corner and Link came in sight, sitting at the edge of his tree-house's porch. One leg dangled from the edge, his arms wrapped around the other and chin resting on a drawn-up knee. Pensive crystal eyes stared sightlessly out across the forest, physically looking forward but only seeing something Tanya could not. His heart-achingly sorrowful profile wasn't what made her stop, though.

It was the agelessness in his eyes.

Link had finally dropped that impenetrable mask he always wore. Now she knew why.

There was more to the hero than first met the eye.

"Well?"

Tanya started at the sound of his voice, embarrassed to find she had been staring. He was watching her calmly, not bothering to hide the ever-present sadness she'd noticed.

Remembering why she had sought him out, she blurted, "What did you mean—"citizen of Hyrule"?"

There was a pause, and then he snorted contemptuously. "What? Did you expect him to release you if I said you were from another world?"

"That's _not_ what this is about, Link, and you know it!" she snapped, moving a few steps closer.

Seemingly unperturbed, Link turned back to the view. "Enlighten me."

Hissing like a cat, Tanya obliged. "You tell me I'm needed for something, then refuse to talk when I ask about it. You tell me monsters are after me, but not why. _I can't keep going on_ like this. I'm running in the dark without any way to see—no lamps, no lights, and the one torch I have refuses to burn. So forgive me if I snap, but I want to know what the hell is going on, and I want to know _now_!"

Link winced visibly, turning his head away from her. Silence reigned for what felt to Tanya an interminable time before he slowly pushed himself to his feet. "You know almost as much as I do about the situation right now. What more is there?"

"There's a _hell_ of a lot more—about me." She swallowed thickly, trying to loosen the knot of frustration and despair in her throat. "Why me? What do _I_ have to do with all this? I'm a _nobody_. So why, all of a sudden…" One hand gestured vaguely toward the entrance to the village; her voice was thick with emotion. "…_this_."

He refused to look at her, still. She could see his jaw shifting, his teeth grinding as if he were steeling himself for some do-or-die task. Finally, he spoke: "You've been having nightmares."

It wasn't a question. Yet she didn't see how that contributed to the problem they were facing. Disoriented, she shot back, "What does _that_ have to do with anything?"

"What do you remember of your childhood?"

"What? Why—"

"Just indulge me for a moment, will you?" he snapped, turning an irritated glare on her.

Tanya crossed her arms and frowned petulantly. "Fine. I remember a big house with lots of pictures, loving parents, and horseback riding lessons. That normal enough for you?"

His eyes became penetrating; she shifted her weight side to side uneasily, feeling as if he could see through every thought and worry she had. "Earlier than that. Is there anything before that?" he urged.

She scowled. "_No_, dammit! Did you expect me to remember every single day of my life from birth or something? I don't have _that_ good a memory."

"Better than you think, though." Link finally faced her, his eyes never leaving hers. "Your nightmares. Tell me about them."

Unnerved by his sudden intensity, Tanya looked away nervously and dredged up the painful images; she didn't dare close her eyes lest their clarity suck her into a realm of terror. "I—There was a girl. Probably no older than four. I-I looked through her eyes the whole time. Her village was attacked, and her parents tried to fight or run." She paused, rubbing one arm self-consciously.

The girl felt so small, reliving those…_memories_.

"What happens after that?"

Tanya looked up sharply at Link's soft voice, surprised to see he had closed the distance between them since she started speaking. After a few moments to work her jaw, she looked down again and continued, "T-the mother ran into a Moblin. Someone else helped her kill it. Next thing I know, that person and I are running for the trees."

She only realized her whole body was trembling when Link's hand gently grasped her shoulder. "Tanya? I need you to look at me, and listen very carefully."

Almost against her will, her eyes drifted upward to meet his. Suddenly she realized why they were his most notable feature; by looking into them, it was almost as if she could read every emotion and thought he had. And right now, there were no barriers between them like there had been in the past.

His next words obliterated everything else.

"That girl _is_ you."

—

Her silence was starting to unnerve Link.

"Tanya?" he said hesitantly, reaching up with his second hand to grasp her shoulders steadyingly. "Tanya, please say something."

She blinked slowly, then rapidly multiple times; her breathing increased its pace until she was nearly hyperventilating. "I—I'm—"

'_Oh no. She's not seriously—'_ He could feel her trembling uncontrollably, and she kept trying to speak even though she couldn't seem to string together a coherent phrase. Realizing what was happening, he groaned exasperatedly. _'She is.'_

Footsteps abruptly broke through his concentration, and Link turned with one hand still on Tanya's shoulder to see Impaz climbing the ladder to the down panic, the hero quickly pulled Tanya into his small tree house and sat her on the bed before her legs could give way. Link knelt in front of her just as the Sage of Shadow entered the dimly-lit space.

She only had to take one look at the distraught girl to figure out what was going on. Crossing the room in two strides and grabbing a chair as she passed, Impaz settled next to Tanya and demanded, "What did you do?"

Vexed by her reprimanding tone, he snapped, "Only what you and the other Sages and the Deku Tree and every Spirit from Tauro to Kakariko have been telling me since this damn situation started! What _else_? And she took it _exactly_ how I told you she would! But _no one listened to me_, did they? No one _ever_ listens to me, no matter how old I am!"

Though she narrowed her eyes at him, she ignored his outburst to instead examine Tanya, who had devolved from useless babble to short-breathed sobs. Seeing her brought to such a state quickly cooled Link's emotions—cooled them quickly enough to stab his chest with thousands of knives.

Guilt. Shame. Remorse. Helplessness. Self-directed anger. Agony.

"Link?"

Hearing Saria's voice kept him from drowning. Link almost blindly stumbled to his feet, following the well-engrained path to his door by heart. His hand throbbed sharply when it found the door-jamb, halting his unsteady progress; feeling suddenly weak, he put his back to the wood and slid to the floor, resting his forehead against his knees.

"I can't do this, Saria," he whimpered pathetically, almost pleadingly. "I can't do this to her. She doesn't deserve to go through what I have."

Her small hand comfortingly rubbed one shoulder. "She can't continue to live a lie, Link—not now that she's here. If the circumstances were any different, we might make this a little easier on her. But they aren't, and we can't."

"C'mon, Link! You can't quit now that you've started," Navi piped up, her blue aura shining in muted tones through his closed eyelids.

"I'd listen to her if I were you, Link," Impaz said. He finally picked his head up to look at her, sitting with one hand on Tanya's shoulder; his gaze swung back and forth between the two Sages, indecision plain on his face.

"L-Link?"

Her voice couldn't have sounded more like a lost and terrified child. Link winced, hardly able to look at her. Pushing himself to his feet, he hesitantly crossed the room toward her. She followed his progress with tear-reddened eyes, watching expectantly as he pulled up a chair in front of her and settled his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor.

"Link…who _am_ I?"

The hero took a few steadying breaths, eyes closed meditatively. Silent anticipation filled the room as thickly as water. Opening his eyes, he softly took her hands in his, studying the mahogany tan on her skin that had only darkened the longer she was in Hyrule.

"You are a daughter of the Gerudo, child of Mara and Adriel of Northern Lanayru." Feeling his courage return, Link finally looked up. Tanya's eyes were wide as a doe's, her face flushed with emotion and streaked by tear-tracks. A wave of protectiveness washed over him; one hand came up to brush the wild strands of dark red hair from her face, then wipe a tear from her cheek. "But you're also Tanya, raised by Jonathan and Amy Grayle, and an amazing archer and horsewoman. Who you are hasn't changed just because your bloodline is different from what you thought it was."

It took a few moments for this concept to sink in—he could see the struggle to understand in her eyes—but once it did, relief flooded her body. Her muscles stopped shivering and grew limp, her hands tightening around his in search of stability as he moved to sit next to her. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but shock seemed to have effectively erased all except the most basic speech capabilities.

He didn't need to know what she wanted to say; all that mattered was that she was calm now. Gently resting a hand on top of her head, he whispered, "It's okay. Everything's okay; just relax."

Not saying a word, the girl shut her mouth, eyes shimmering with uncertainty and gratitude. After a few moments, Tanya sighed and scooted closer to him, laying her cheek against his shoulder. A little surprised, Link awkwardly shifted his arm to hug her comfortingly, slowly stroking her hair when a few last sniffles escaped her.

"I think she needs to rest," Impaz suggested quietly. Link looked up to see her standing beside them, Saria a few feet closer to the door. Navi hovered indecisively between the Sages, watching him hopefully. He looked uncertainly down at the girl in his arms—

—_wondering how she was going to survive in a strange world without her parents._

Unnerved by the flashback, Link nodded to Impaz. "Right. She—she can stay here, tonight. Easier than trying to move her," he mumbled, carefully extricating his arm from around Tanya's shoulder. Saria hurried over to help settle her as Link moved toward the door, Navi floating close to his shoulder.

"How're you feeling?" the fairy asked quietly once they stepped outside.

He sighed, bracing his hands on either side of the gap over the ladder, watching the last of the Kokiri sleepily climb ladders to their houses under the guidance of their fairies. "A little shocked, I think." Shaking his head wolfishly, he agonized, "I can't believe I did that to her!"

"Link, stop being a stupid Stalchild and think about this for a moment," Navi chastised calmly. "_You can't change this_. It was out of your hands the moment she was born, really. You knew the day she left that you'd have to tell her the truth sooner or later."

Suppressing a growl, the hero pushed off from the railing and paced in a circle, fists pressed to his eyes. The beginning of a crushing headache was pressing at his temples, and he was in no mood for a lecture.

_Especially_ not one of Navi's.

"Sooner probably would have been better."

The wolf snapped. Link whirled to face Navi, his expression a cross between a snarl and a grimace. "When did I have the chance? When we were being chased by Moblins? Stuck in the Twilight? Attacked by a Skulltula? She couldn't be like _that_—" He jabbed a finger at the door. "—when we were running for our lives. I just—I don't—"

"Link—"

He wasn't thinking straight.

"I—I need to…to clear my head," he muttered.

Before Navi could protest, he was climbing down the ladder as fast as he could, dashing for the Sacred Forest Meadow.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Impaz queried, stepping out of a shadow as the hero vanished into the woods.

Navi sighed, the motion moving her an inch up and then down again. She brushed short blue bangs from her eyes as she turned and slowly flew toward the Shekiah as Saria joined them. "I don't know. I haven't seen him so beat up and confused about something since—well—since the Deku Tree Sprout told him about _his_ heritage."

Her red eyes stared at the exact spot where Link had entered the Woods, hardly betraying any emotion. Navi had been acquainted with this particular Sage long enough to know how worried she really was, though, when she _hmm_'d and crossed her arms, weight shifted to one foot. "I've never seen him so…gentle. With _anyone_."

"There's always been something about…Tanya," Saria said quietly. "Even when she was little, he had a soft spot for her."

Navi nodded; she knew what the Kokiri meant. "He was so beat up when she left. If I hadn't stuck with him afterward, I'm not sure what would have happened to him." She sighed, wings drooping as she settled herself atop Saria's head. "Seeing him like this, now…"

The distraught fairy didn't have to say any more; the Sages wanted to help the hero as much as she did.

But this was one battle Link had to fight alone.

"_You're running away again."_

"_What? Scared of a little girl, Big Bad Hero?"_

"_You can face down an army of phantoms, undead, and other creatures of evil, but not a few tears?"_

"_You're such a pathetic Hylian—not even a _man_, let alone a _hero_!"_

"Shut up!" He hissed, stumbling up a flight of eroded marble stairs. "Shut—up! You…you don't know what you're talking about…"

His progress steadily slowed until finally he reached the top of the staircase and leaned heavily against the wall, eyes closed and head braced on one arm. Fisting his other hand, the hero slowly calmed his breathing, thinking of nothing except his pulse and the air rushing through his lungs.

A breath of a breeze caught his attention. Link barely turned his head to look as Midna emerged from his shadow and floated to eye-level, her one garnet eye watching him indifferently. _"Care to talk?"_

Her suggestion was met with a one-eyed glare and a wolfish growl. "No."

"_Pft. Fine. Don't talk. It's not like I could help or anything, could I?"_ She crossed her arms in a huff and moved away, deeper into the clearing at the end of the stairs. Link remained where he was, breathing as deeply as he could and forcing himself to relax as much as possible.

Or trying to.

"_You know you practically slapped that girl in the face, telling her what you did."_

His fingers reflexively curled into claws, scraping against the earthen wall. "I had—no—_choice_," he moaned. "It had to come out sometime."

Midna _hmph_'d. _"Sooner might have been better; no matter when you told her, you would've gotten a similar reaction. Probably to a lesser degree, if you'd been upfront with her. At least she'd_ trust _you."_

"What more could I have done?" he howled, slamming a fist into the wall. All the energy he had thought safely contained exploded through his arm, tearing a chunk out of his target. He leaned away from the wall, dragging his other hand down the façade, and paced toward the single stump to one side of the clearing. Putting his head in his hands in yet another attempt to calm himself, he slowly sat down on the stump where he'd played the ocarina and spoken with Saria so long ago.

"Just her _being_ here tears me up inside," Link whispered after long minutes of silence. His hands gradually dropped from his face until they rested on his knees. Staring pensively at the marble hexagon dug into the middle of the clearing, he mused, "I try what I can to do the right thing, but...who can really know for sure? Especially when she remembers next to nothing about her homeland. Should I try to give that back to her? Does she even _want_ it? Does she resent me for bringing her back? I'd like to think she doesn't, but...she wasn't raised here."

Midna floated over and set her feet on the ground a short distance in front of him. Her expression had lost its antagonism and become sympathetic. "_Well, you've already told her the biggest surprise, from what I can tell. Why not just suck it up and go answer the rest of her questions? Can't be any worse than the initial shock."_

Link sighed, leaning back on his hands until he was lying down on the stump. He stared at the canopy for a while, letting the silence stretch out as his gaze combed the glimpses of sky he could see and his thoughts calmed down. Finally, he closed his eyes and murmured, "I suppose it's worth a try. In the morning, though; I'll let her sleep first, maybe get some of the shock out of her system."

His eyes opened again when Midna chuckled. _"Morning, wolf boy? Don't you remember how that went_ last _time?"_

He stifled a half-hearted chuckle. "...Tomorrow, then," he amended, shaking his head. Sensing an end to the discussion, he then rolled onto his side, curled into a ball, and fell asleep just as he had as a child a hundred times before.

—

_Her little legs shook with exhaustion and effort as she stumbled after the adult shape before her, pulled onward by a large but gentle hand locked around her own. She wanted to cry, wanted to call out for her mother, but her protector had made it very clear that she couldn't make a sound. After all, noise told the horrible flame-shadow monsters where they were, and Kelly wanted to stay as far away from them as possible._

_Her rescuer was helping her to do that. Darkness enveloped them as they darted through the night, away from the village. The farther from the inferno they drew, the brighter the gibbous moon's light shone on them, illuminating a welcome path into the forest. Those horrid sounds died into whispers and then silence as the undergrowth thickened._

_Fear pooled in her heart as thick as oil the deeper they ran into the unfamiliar trees, her breath coming in sharp, pained gasps. Tears streamed down her cheeks at the pain tearing her apart; not only was she not used to this, she was far too small to have any hope of keeping up. Her sobs didn't help her breathing any, either, although she valiantly tried to keep up with the constant pressure on her arm from the hand locked around hers._

_All she had to do was trust him. He would get her out of there. She knew it._

_She hoped Mama and Papa would be wherever they were going._

_But willpower and wishes would only get her so far. At the point where she felt she couldn't move another inch, Kelly's toes jammed against a concealed root. The momentum of her fall jerked her hand from her protector's grasp, and the girl's pained yelp echoed between the trees as she rolled uncontrollably through the fall debris strewn across the path._

_When she finally came to a stop—stunned, bruised, and feeling like the only living being in existence—Kelly lay where she fell, curled into the fetal position and trying her hardest not to wail at the excruciating pain in her body. Instead the scream came out as high-pitched whimpers and moans, her fingers fisted in tufts of her short red hair in an attempt to block out the pain as other, unnatural sounds rang out overhead._

_Surprise jolted her out of her agony as familiar arms smoothly scooped her up off the ground, and suddenly they were running at a pace too fast for Kelly's mind to process. Nausea roiling in her stomach, the girl instinctively screwed her eyes shut and buried her face against her protector's chest._

_She would be all too glad for this nightmare to end._

_When the jarring strides finally dropped to a bouncing trot and then a rocking walk, Kelly dared to turn her head and survey their new surroundings with wide eyes. They stood in a small grassy clearing occupied by only one other—a stranger in whose presence Kelly nonetheless felt the same sense of ease as she did with her protector. The dark-clothed figure had their back to the newcomers and stood with the same stance she'd seen Mama in when the monster stopped them._

_The stranger turned, bright blue eyes sharp as moonlight in the darkness, as her protector shifted Kelly's weight in his arms._

"_Her parents?"_

_Silence was all the stranger seemed to need; she bowed her head solemnly. "I am sorry."_

_For the first time that night, her rescuer spoke: "I'm going back for them as soon as we're done here." His voice held an edge of pain and wild purpose that worried Kelly._

_She squirmed impatiently—wanting to know what they were talking about but frustrated by a lack of understanding—as the warrior sharply admonished, "We can't afford it, Link. These woods are crawling with monsters looking for _her_. You know what that means, if even Farore's Forest cannot protect her. We have to find somewhere else for her to stay, and that means we have to buy time to get her there. If it takes the courage and sacrifice of her parents to do that, then so be it."_

_The hands around her shoulders and knees hugged Kelly closer to his chest. Sensing his unease and pain, Kelly wrapped her tiny fist in the fabric of his tunic, the only way she knew how to comfort him._

"_Then what do we do? Where can I take her? If she can't stay here, she's not safe in any realm in Hylia; Ganon will know to look outside Hyrule as soon as he doesn't find her here."_

_Snapping twigs and rustling undergrowth heralded the arrival of another black-clothed warrior—though the sounds were caused by the falling of a monster's dead body from the trees at the edge of the clearing. Wiping his short blade on a square of dark cloth, the newcomer commented, "Whatever we do, Your Majesty, it better be done quickly. They're scouring these trees like rats looking for food."_

_The woman-soldier he had addressed nodded curtly, then turned back to Link. "There is only one solution I can think of that will buy her enough time to grow to adulthood in safety, and that is to open the portals to Terr."_

_Kelly could feel the ripple of shock that moved through his heart at the suggestion. "But we don't even know if that world _exists_, Zelda, or what it's like!" he protested; heartbreak laced his next words. "And none of us can afford to stay there with her, if we can even come back. How do we know we'll be able to retrieve her, or that Ganon won't follow us? It's too much risk!"_

"_Link, since when have you not done something because it's too risky? Do you _realize_ the position we're in right now? Unless you have a better idea, this is the only way to prevent her from dying at the hand of Ganon's minions before she even has a chance to _understand_ her destiny, let alone fulfill it!"_

_Frightful yowls and flickering torchlight growing closer to the little group filled the silence that followed. Kelly could feel the fear returning as she remembered what those sounds meant, hiding her face again in the hopes that it might go away._

_The arms holding her rocked a little as Link sighed, the sound loud but familiar in her ears. "Alright," he murmured. "I'll take her over."_

Disoriented upon gaining partial consciousness, Tanya faded in and out of visions of fire and darkness, night and the dim interior of a one-room dwelling. When she finally managed to grasp a semi-coherent thought, it was to realize how tired and confused she still felt. Something about the dream had been different—no longer as if she were following the little girl through her eyes, but as if she were actually living the events.

No; not living.

_Reliving._

The events of the previous evening crashed over her like the rush and roar of a broken dam. Tanya groaned and wrapped her arms around her head, burying her face in the pillow in stubborn refusal to acknowledge the day.

Hylian.

_She_ was Hylian.

And she didn't even know what to think of that.

'_What the hell am I supposed to do?'_ she lamented. _'What _can_ I do?'_

Curl into a pathetic ball of self-denial and bawl her eyes out?

Rip the first person that walks through the door into shreds?

Act like _nothing happened_?

'_Oh, to hell with it.'_

She couldn't stay in here the rest of her life. After all, Link had managed—

Link. She still had questions for him.

'_Damn.'_

Feeling nowhere near ready for another confrontation like the last time, but too awake to remain in bed, Tanya flung the blanket off and swung herself into a seated position. The girl surveyed the eerily familiar one-room tree-house as she shook off the last vestiges of sleep from her limbs. Her agitation only spiked upon realizing this was Link's house—but the warrior was nowhere in sight.

Inside of five minutes, Tanya was alighting from the ladder and letting her feet take her where they would. She veered left first, trying not to notice as a group of Kokiri and their fairies sped past going the opposite direction, laughing and shouting in play. A spark of envy shot through her at their carefree frolicking, giving fuel to the fire she could feel building in her chest.

That sensation—and the analogy—startled her. Her beastial stride paused momentarily before a vine-covered cliff that delineated the edge of the village and the beginning of the Lost Woods. The tangled emotions roiling within her echoed the faint, rumbling growl from some deeper part of her soul. Both curious and perplexed, Tanya looked down at herself and placed an open palm under her collarbone, wondering at the feverish warmth radiating from her torso. She didn't feel sick…

Then the light bulb flicked on.

'_Oh. Dragon. Fire. Right.'_

Of course, this realization only served as a reminder that her world had been flipped upside-down.

And she still held Link responsible.

Letting the dragon take over again, Tanya turned away from the Lost Woods and stalked back into the village proper, trying not to look at anyone or anything. She didn't want the attention she felt sure she was getting, but didn't know where else to go. So her feet paced willy-nilly around the ladders that sprouted up in her path and along the edge of a small spring, her mind circling around and shying away from the source of her agitation.

A strong but gentle hand on her arm snapped her out of her spiraling thoughts. "Easy, Tanya. It's nice to see you up and about, but let's not get too carried away."

Tanya blinked, looking from the hand on her arm up to Impaz's face, which took a moment for her befuddled mind to register. "Oh. G'morning, Impaz." Once the Shekiah's hand had fallen away, she queried, "Where's Link?"

She spent a few moments appraising the girl before answering. "He sometimes likes to sit by the Deku Tree. Says the quiet is good for sorting out troublesome thoughts."

Without another word, Tanya made a beeline for the narrow but well-trod path away from the village deeper into the comforting, isolating trees. A stab of nostalgia hit her as she wove between the trees; it wasn't exactly what she remembered in _Ocarina of Time_, but that was far from a perfect representation of reality anyway.

She snorted at herself. _'No kidding, genius.'_

Her steps slowed as she entered the meadow proper, jaw agape at the sight of the intricate canopy of leaves arching overhead like a cathedral ceiling. A long ways before her stood the sole source of the huge branches forming that ceiling: the Great Deku Tree.

Tanya was so engrossed in examining the massive tree she didn't notice she had continued walking until she nearly stumbled over a smaller above-ground root. After regaining her balance through, she took a few moments to survey the meadow at ground level. When the object of her search wasn't immediately apparent, she turned her back to the tree in frustration as her eyes raked over the scenery again.

"Thou seekest the Hero of Time?"

The creaking bass voice of the great tree startled her, making her spin around again to be sure she wasn't hallucinating. Noticing her surprise, the tree made a sound Tanya could only describe as a chuckle. As another wave of nostalgia washed over her, the girl moved to a root rearing from the earth that was tall enough to sit on before replying, "Yes, I do."

"Impaz told thou this is one of his haunts, did she not?" At her nod, the tree informed her gently, "She would be incorrect. While this meadow is certainly a haven for him, he dost prefer the Lost Woods in times of turmoil."

Her eyes immediately widened and shot up to look at the tree. So Impaz _had_ lied to her…

Apparently something in her suddenly-tense posture gave her away, for the Deku Tree stopped her from bolting out of the meadow with a branch outstretched toward her. "However, I wouldst not recommend thou speak with him just yet."

She frowned petulantly. "Why not? He's got questions to answer, big time."

"Hast thou ever considered how he might be feeling?"

Tanya opened her mouth to retort but quickly stopped herself, blinking. Deflating, she admitted in a small voice, "No…"

A decidedly unnatural breeze ruffled the tree's leaves, making a sound equivalent to a sigh. "Having lived and worked alone most of his life, he is not used to confiding in or trusting others. Telling thou of thy heritage especially is difficult for him because of his role in your past."

Her eyes widened. Images from her memories—nightmares—flashed unbidden before her eyes. Torn between what she had always seen as truth and a deeply buried desire to believe in a new reality, Tanya protested, "But…the math doesn't work out! How was he—"

A branch's touch on her shoulder halted her midsentence. "Thou knowest the truth in thy heart. But it is not for me to explain something he keeps even more close to himself than what he has told thou." The limb retracted, and something told her the tree's focus had moved to the path behind her. "Thou must be patient; all will be revealed in good time."

Wondering what had attracted the Deku Tree's attention, Tanya slowly turned to see Link standing at the head of the trail. Something was…different about the hero; she wasn't sure if it was because he seemed less tense than the night before—or because the mask had returned.

Suppressing a sigh, the girl looked away from him as he approached her and the Deku Tree. She didn't look up when his footfalls ceased, though she was somehow hyper aware of his presence in the awkward silence.

It took the Deku Tree speaking to break the mood. "You are troubled, Link."

"It's that obvious?" Tanya looked up with a sarcastic remark on her tongue, only to stop short as his wane smile was replaced with a sigh. When he finally looked at her, she froze; the mask had slipped away again, and guilt filled his eyes.

"I know what you're going through—" he began apologetically, "—and I'm sorry I had to do that. But we are what we are, and despite what my existence may say to the contrary, we can't change the past."

Tanya blinked. _Could he be any more cryptic…?_ "What—exactly—do you mean?"

He moved to take a step toward her, but seemed to think better of it and simply sighed again. "I'm sorry…for not telling you about this sooner. I remember how it felt, learning I wasn't Kokiri, and I know it must be worse for you because of your circumstances."

At his mention of her unique situation—which she _still_ knew nothing about—Tanya griped, "If I knew what those circumstances _were_ exactly…"

Before answering, Link walked over to the root on which she had perched, but still a few steps away. He exhaled deeply, running a hand through his messy bangs as he gathered his thoughts. "That's…quite complicated," the hero admitted at length. "And there are a few things even I don't know, or can't explain fully. I'll start with what I can, though—and what's most relevant to your particular situation."

When he hesitated for too long, Tanya impatiently prompted, "So, you're going to tell me why _you_ show up in my…memories?"

A stab of guilt hit her when Link visibly flinched, head bowed and fingers digging into the side of the root on which he was leaning. He took a few deep breaths to collect himself. "Tanya…I'm not who—what—you think I am. I'm…" Through gritted teeth, he said quietly, "I'm…over four hundred years old."

Silence swallowed the meadow. Tanya stared at the hero, her mind feeling paralyzed once more upon hearing such an absurd claim. Eventually, the only sensible thing she could think to say was, "You're joking, right?"

That drew a dry, pained chuckle of irony from Link. "You think I can just _make up_ four hundred years of experience?" he growled bitterly. At her chastised look, he realized how harsh he had been and waved it off. "I'm sorry. It's…it's nothing." Taking a stabilizing breath, he said, "Now, I'm sure you're wondering how that plays into your memories."

She nodded as he continued. "A few years before you were born, there were signs that Ganon was stirring again. We knew to be ready for him—we've…_I_'ve done this a few times before—but we had to take an additional precaution." Link gestured to her. "While we're still not entirely sure about the full impact that pendant—and you—have, we've figured out a few things. First among them is that this has something to do with the Triforce, because it reacts to both Zelda and me." He levered himself off the log and turned to face her. "Which means you are somehow involved with the Triforce, too, because you're the only other person for which it shows an affinity."

This was too much for Tanya. The panic that had overcome her yesterday threatened to overwhelm her yet again. She pulled her feet up on top of the root and wrapped her arms around her knees, hiding her face against them as she fought against the breakdown. Link put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but the girl didn't—couldn't—look up.

"I know this is a lot, and again, I'm sorry I have to put you through this." Awkwardly, he offered, "If there's…anything I can do…"

Tanya shook her head, still not looking at him. "I just…want to be alone, for a while…" she said around a lump in her throat.

She thought he might protest, but instead he squeezed her shoulder comfortingly before stepping away. Link paused—there were no footsteps—but then she heard him slowly walk off, leaving her alone with her whirling thoughts.


	9. Interludium

**Chapter 9: Interludium**

Chattering birds and laughing Kokiri roused Tanya from her sleep the next morning. Groggily the girl propped herself up on an elbow and rolled to her side, surveying the inside of the tree-house in which she had slept through bleary eyes. Rubbing the sleep-sand from them, she forced her feet to hit the floor as her brain caught up with the sunlight streaming in a window over her bed.

_'Why did they have to put it on the east side of the tree?'_ she groused.

The voices outside slowly began to separate into distinct timbres and personalities as she grew more awake. Once she felt she could stand without stumbling, she rose, dressed, and moved outside onto the balcony.

Squinting against the even brighter morning sun, Tanya braced her hands against the rail and peered out across the wide clearing between tree-houses. Impaz, Link, and Vanessa were already gathered toward the far end, near the cliff Tanya had noted in her wanderings the day before. The large amethyst-scaled dragon that had intervened during the ambush perched precariously atop the grassy shelf of rock, peering down on the Hylians below her.

Impaz's yell caught her attention as Tanya was trying to recall the dragon's name. She shifted her gaze to see the Shekiah waving her down. "Come on, Tanya! There's someone you need to meet, and then we have to be going."

After a quick nod and thumbs-up to show she understood—her throat didn't yet feel up to yelling, this early in the morning—the girl hurried back inside to pack her scant belongings and get ready to travel. By the time she climbed down the ladder with her two pouches back on her belt, her sword strapped over one shoulder by a bandoleer, and her large saddlebags slung over the other, the trio were finishing their own preparations.

Vanessa turned from her white mount and buckling a saddlebag's top as Tanya approached. She nearly broke stride as her green eyes met the dragon rider's hazel ones for a brief second. The oddest shiver jumped down her spine, but it had nearly vanished before she even registered it. She chalked it up to her overactive imagination as she stopped and listened to Impaz's introductions.

"Tanya, this is Vanessa Satori, Mistress of Light, and that—" She gestured to the dragon behind and above her. "—is her dragon partner Teresa, from Labrynna."

The brunette offered a hand to shake, which Tanya took as she spoke. "Tanya Grayle." Slightly embarrassed by how short that was in comparison, she let go of Vanessa's hand and added, "It's not very impressive…"

To her surprise, she simply chuckled and waved it off. "No problem. I used to be plain old Vanessa Satori before Teresa and the monsters came along."

Tanya nearly jumped when a smooth, purple-tinged presence touched the back of her mind. _"I hope you're not equating me to those worms, Vanessa,"_ Teresa commented. Tanya got the distinct impression of a sarcastically questioning expression from the dragon. The girl blinked as what had just happened processed.

_'Oh. Dragon. Telepathy. Right.'_

Vanessa rolled her eyes at the comment, but then laughed. "Of course not, Lightwing."

Though feeling confused once more by the odd name she had used, Tanya was thankfully saved from having to ask and further embarrass herself; Link turned from tightening Epona's girth to break up the conversation. "Well, now that the introductions are over, we should really get going." Turning his gaze upward, he said, "Teresa, would you mind flying scout again? The Lost Woods can be tricky under normal circumstances, and I really don't want us to be caught off-guard before we reach the Door. I'll let you know when we're close."

_"Of course. May the Goddesses lend speed to your flight."_

Tanya watched in awe as the dragon crouched down and stretched her wings wide to the side like enormous sails. After a moment of preparation, Teresa dug in her hind claws and leapt straight off the cliff like a cat. Despite how low she was flying and the tornado-like gusts from her passing, though, the horses only snorted nervously and pricked their ears warily—

All except Katara, at least, who shied once and then continued to prance sideways anxiously even under Impaz's calming hand. Tanya hurried over to help and get ready to go as Link and Vanessa climbed into their saddles.

"Do we know how far out the Curtain is?" she heard Vanessa ask as the two walked past them toward the Lost Woods.

Link stopped Epona to look over his shoulder at Impaz. The Sage answered after vaulting into her own saddle. "I took a quick reconnaissance run yesterday. It was nearing the edge of the trees then. The Deku Tree is the only force holding it back right now."

"Then we'll have to move quickly," Link said. Tanya hurriedly mounted Katara as the other three started moving for the trees, Impaz and Link in front with Vanessa following. "Even using the Lost Doors, we won't have much time before it reaches Kakariko."

"What, exactly, are we doing there? Other than escaping the Twilight," Tanya asked, catching up so she rode abreast of Vanessa.

"Well for one, we need to warn the Shekiah and Gorons of the incoming threat. Impaz and I are going to meet with Darbus, the Sage of Fire, to discuss what we can do to try to limit its range and effectiveness. Hopefully we can have some sort of defense prepared before it totally engulfs Death Mountain."

"My people are masters of walking with the shadows," Impaz assured. "If anyone can fight this Twilight, it will be the Shekiah."

Link cracked a small smile. "Of that I have no doubt, Impaz." Seeming to sense her continued confusion, he explained to Tanya: "Kakariko and Goron City also provide us a good safe haven should we end up running into trouble before we can leave for Hyrule Castle."

"We also don't have much of a choice where we end up, if we want to avoid the Twilight," Vanessa piped up. "The only other exit from the forest is the way you came in, which puts us right in the Curtain. So it's off to Kakariko we go!"

Tanya blinked. _'Did they just finish each other's rationale…?'_

Apparently her expression at this realization was humorous, because Vanessa laughed lightly and explained, "You learn a lot, training under the Hero of Time for even a few years."

"Not that it's helped much, yet," Link commented smugly.

The warrior pouted. "Hey, I need every advantage I can get when sparring someone as old as you."

That seemed to put a bit of a damper on Link's mood, for he retorted, "You won't always have those advantages, Vanessa. I thought you'd learned that by now."

An embarrassed blush flooded her cheeks, and she ducked her head; Tanya felt a twinge of sympathy for her at Link's harsh words. Wanting to alleviate the suddenly tense mood, she asked, "So, how did you get the title "Mistress of Light", anyway?"

Vanessa's voice was much less bubbly than it had been as she started her explanation, but Tanya was glad to see the blush quickly die out. "Two years ago, Link was tasked with ensuring that Oracle Nayru's recovery from her ordeal the year before was uneventful—that no follow-up attempts to kidnap or otherwise harm her or the fabric of time were made. When the level of monster activity increased, and Nayru was found missing, Link recruited me and a contingent of Labrynnian soldiers to help investigate. We found Nayru alive and unharmed, but in the process ran into a monstrous dragon—"

_"Dragoon,"_ Teresa corrected.

Rolling her eyes, but otherwise seeming unperturbed by the interruption, she continued, "—that managed to capture Link during the fight." At seeing Link's sour, sullen look that nearly screamed "Don't remind me", she admonished lightly, "Oh don't look like that, Link. I had the worst nightmares of my life while you were locked up." Speaking to Tanya again, she added, "It got so bad that I eventually went to the Maku Tree, who told me I was supposed to free him. To make a long story short, I teamed up with Teresa, broke the barrier around the castle where he was held, got him out of there, and helped defeat his captors once and for all. Then I came here, and I've been honing my skills ever since."

Impressed, Tanya asked more about what the other girl had done. She was more than willing to talk, her chatter filling in otherwise dead air between the four of them. Not sure what else to do, Tanya just let her talk, listening intently and responding to her stories as required. Every so often she would glance at Link's back, wondering what he was thinking about their conversation, how much of what Vanessa was saying he might have heard before.

_'Probably a lot of it,'_ she realized, losing her focus on Vanessa's voice for a moment. _'After all, if he's as old as he said, and he was involved in the story, then she probably told him after she found him…'_

Somehow, that brought on a slight twinge of…what? Sadness? Jealousy? From what she had seen of the two, and was now hearing in this story, Link and Vanessa seemed to have a strong relationship with clearly laid out boundaries. Yet ever since he had literally charged into her life, there only seemed to be smoke and mirrors between them.

_'But he answered your questions yesterday…'_ the child meekly reminded her.

The archer snorted. _'Too little, too late, I say.'_

Tanya sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and frowning severely. She could feel a headache coming on at the bickering in her head; considering how messed up that was, she was surprised she didn't have a full-blown migraine.

She was saved from herself by the sudden gale of Teresa's wings snapping her concentration. Tanya jerked her head up, startled, to see the dragon landing in a large glade that seemed to appear from nothing before the travelers. More irregular cliffs ringed the far side of the clearing, where a mirror-like pool reflected the late morning sunlight. A narrow walkway connected the near shore with a well-sized island jutting from the cliff's bottom into the water; a wide, unnaturally smooth cleft in the rock yawned around the tongue of earth, dark but nearly shimmering with magic.

Fighting off the nervousness that suddenly tickled the back of her mind at the sight of the Lost Door, Tanya shifted her attention to Link and Impaz, who were already dismounted and guiding their horses toward the makeshift gangplank over the crystal-clear pond. She quickly followed suit as Vanessa dismounted, also.

"We have to go through _that_?" she commented almost kiddingly, pointing to the fissure.

Vanessa laughed lightly. "It's really not as bad as it looks. You might even say it's more comfortable than riding a horse for a few days. In that respect, they're really quite handy."

Despite the other girl's levity, Tanya's nervousness didn't completely go away. They had reached the island now, and her skin tingled as if charged with electricity; a glance down at her bare arm showed her that the small hairs were standing on end. Scowling, she vigorously rubbed her arm as if that could scrub out the anxiety poisoning her nerves.

This reminded her too much of the _other_ portal.

Seeing Link and Impaz's calm—almost bored—demeanor helped her to refocus on the task at hand. Once the group had gathered before the Door, Link turned to them and said, "Impaz will go through first and return directly to her people. Vanessa, you and Tanya will follow; go to Impaz's house and wait for us there. I'm going to meet with Darbus and explain the situation. It might take a while, so don't expect me back until moons-high."

"What if something happens?" Vanessa questioned as Impaz stepped into the Door. Tanya stared, jaw slightly agape, as the Shekiah's figure melted away like a mirage.

Link's eyes hardened as if daring something to go wrong. "Head for the castle by whatever means necessary. That will be our rally point. I don't expect anything out of the ordinary, but one can never be too cautious." He turned and, seeing Tanya's expression, added, "It's not half as bad as the portal from Terra, Tanya. Just close your eyes and relax, and you'll hardly feel a thing."

"_Hardly_?" she repeated incredulously.

A hint of amusement lit his eyes, and he nodded to the Door as Vanessa stepped up to it. "Go on. I'll be right behind you, and Impaz is on the other side. You have nothing to worry about; I promise."

Steeling herself for the unexpected, Tanya moved up behind Vanessa. The warrior gave her an encouraging smile over one shoulder before casually walking into the cleft as if nothing extraordinary were about to happen.

To prevent her courage from evaporating at the last second, Tanya followed directly on her heels.

—

Despite the distraction provided by meeting with Darbus, the Goron Circle of Elders, and the Shekiah _hakase_, Link somehow found his thoughts wandering down completely different paths. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't seem to keep Tanya from his mind.

_'This is ridiculous,'_ he grumbled. _'It's been less than half a day since I've come up here, and she's safe in Kakariko. There should be no reason for me to be worrying.'_

But he knew, deep down, it wasn't her physical safety that preoccupied him whenever he wasn't involved in intense discussions about how the Gorons and Shekiah might combat the Twilight in the near future. Despite the iron discipline developed from training under both Impa and the first Zelda, whispers of her distraught voice echoed in the back of his mind.

If he didn't do something about it very soon, he just might end up hurting something. Completely by accident, of course.

So that was how the hero found himself staring at Tanya's closed door late that same night, wondering how to approach her. He couldn't hear any sounds from within the room; he hoped that meant she was sleeping. _'I hope she's not still angry at me.'_

Ignoring the recurring twinge of guilt in his chest, Link finally raised a hand to lightly knock on the dark wood.

Tanya glanced up for a brief moment as he gently eased the door open. She had been lying on her back on the mattress but now propped herself up on her elbows to see her visitor. Her gear was arranged neatly on and around the bedside table, and her hair had been freed from its customary braid to tumble over her shoulder. She had wrapped her pendant's chain around her curled fingers, cradling it almost protectively inside her closed fist.

"Hey," he greeted lamely. She attempted a smile in return, but quickly looked away as if unable to meet his eyes. Link carefully stepped into the room, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him. Clearing his throat to break the awkward silence, he asked, "How are you doing?" Tanya simply shrugged; after another awkward moment, he tried again. "Do you…feel up to hearing more? About…"

For a moment, Link was afraid she either wouldn't want to talk to him, or he would have to find other words to broach the sensitive subject. He didn't realize he was holding his breath until she finally moved to sit cross-legged and looked back up at him. Even when she shifted her gaze back to her loosely-clenched fist, tucking her hair behind her ear with the other hand, he was relieved to see she didn't seem to outwardly hate him anymore.

When Tanya finally spoke, her voice was quiet and reserved. "I…guess it depends on what you have to say."

Hiding a wince at the implication in her words, he stepped closer and gestured for permission to sit beside her. She silently drew her legs to her chest and moved closer to the headboard, giving him space to sit. Link appraised her as he settled on the mattress, noting her continued silence and resigned countenance.

At least she wasn't in total denial of the situation anymore.

He wasn't sure whether that was good or bad, though.

Link sighed, finally looking away from her. Once he had gathered his thoughts, he said quietly, "I'm…sure you're wondering what happened to your birth parents. What happens in your dreams, really your memories." His own memories ghosted across his mind's eye, a whispered, haunting taunt at his failure; he tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, clenching his fist against the pain. "It's not a little surprising you don't understand them; you were only three," he explained, looking back at her after a pause. Hesitantly, he clarified, "You remember I said that you and that pendant are somehow connected to the Triforce?"

Link was somewhat surprised when she merely nodded; that had seemed to be a source of contention last they had spoken. Deciding she really had resigned herself to the new _status quo_, he pressed on, "Somehow, Ganon learned about it. And, naturally, that meant you were in danger as long as he could find you…which he did. Three times, in fact, before the events of your nightmares. When they attacked the fourth time, it seemed there was nowhere left to run—"

"Except Earth," she whispered.

A little startled by her sudden interjection, he studied Tanya's posture and drawn face carefully. She had settled her chin on her knees and wrapped one arm around them, clasping the wrist of her left hand with the other. Her gaze was trained in his direction, but he could tell she was staring right through him to something he couldn't see—turned inward to her own thoughts and feelings.

He let a few moments pass before sighing and looking down at his hands, fingers laced loosely together and limp in his lap. "I took you across, where I met the woman you know as your mother. What happened after was in the hands of the Goddesses."

Silence slowly filled the room like the gentle lap of the tide rising on a beach. For once, the stillness didn't feel awkward or strained between them. They were both too tired to argue anymore, and Tanya especially seemed a little defeated by the waves of information Link had swamped her with over the past few days.

Guilt batted a paw at him again when he thought of what he was putting her through.

_'And I thought _I'd_ had a rough time of it in my day…'_

"I don't know what to think anymore…" she finally murmured, her eyes hooded and downcast. Link's heart twinged sympathetically, especially at hearing the three-year-old in her voice.

The question she'd asked shortly after he'd first told her the truth whispered through his mind. After a moment of hesitation, he cautiously reached out to lay a hand over her left fist comfortingly. She picked her head up, seeming a little stupefied, as the pendant glowed through the gaps between her curled fingers. A faint smile crossed his face upon seeing the soft light.

_'I think I know what to say, now…'_

"Honestly, Tanya, it doesn't very much matter. Everything I've told you is from the past—a different time, another realm entirely. That may have been what you were and where you originated…but it's not _who_ you are. You are a kind-hearted, thoughtful young lady with a very important future in front of you, regardless of what Destiny may have in store. Knowing what I've told you only deepens that character, giving it another dimension—not destroying what you already built for yourself. Kel and Tanya are the same person; _that_ is who you are."

She couldn't seem to figure out what to say to that, her mouth slightly agape in surprise; her green eyes pinned him curiously as if searching for any insincerity in his words. After a long while of what Link was sure was a round of soul-searching, Tanya finally drew in a shaky breath. A small, contented smile creased her face and lit her eyes as she exhaled, then spoke. "Is Kel short for Kelly? I…remember my parents used to call me Kelly…"

He blinked; that had been far easier than he expected. In the space of one sentence, she had managed to at least appear as if she accepted everything.

For her sake, he hoped that was true. Something told him things were going to get a lot rougher in the near future.

Remembering where he was, Link quickly pulled his thoughts off that path and back on track. Letting go of Tanya's hand, he explained, "Your complete given name is Kellyanne, but that wouldn't be used until you were much older." Quirking a smile, he added, "Plus, "Kelly" is less of a mouthful."

To his relief, she genuinely returned the smile. "And "Kel" even less," she said.

He couldn't help a chuckle at her teasing tone. "That it is."

They lapsed into peaceful silence again, lost in their own thoughts. Tanya broke the quiet with another question: "What were they like? My parents."

Link couldn't look at her for the strength of the memories that flooded their barriers—but somehow they were all…happy. For once he wasn't haunted by the ghosts of their doomed faces, filled with the grim resignation of death.

That flood of joyful images brought a smile to his face. "Honest, hard-working, very gifted people. Your father ran a well-off estate in Lanayra Province and frequently traveled to the capitol on business or just for special events. The Harvest Festival was always his favorite because of the huge gatherings, the incredible diversity of the crowds—members of all the races come for the celebration—and the specialty items that tend to only appear around that time in Hyrule Castle because of the influx of various peoples. Adriel loved to collect unique objects with formerly practical applications and try to figure out what they did and how they worked. He even restored and worked with some of the more useful ones."

He paused, glancing at Tanya to study her. "Your mother… You look very much like her, except for the ears."

She blinked, and her expression morphed from attentive to puzzled. "Why?"

Link had to look away again; would his memories never rest? "She was a Gerudo—one of the strongest and skilled of the Elites and full sister to the Chieftess," he explained, forcing himself to look back at her.

Eyes wide, she lifted a hand as if to stop him from continuing. "Whoa, wait up a minute. So, I'm the Gerudo leader's _niece_?"

He smirked at her; the fact she had caught on to the fact the Chieftess was the leader, even as obvious as the title was, pleased him. Even at the tender age she had left Hyrule, she was still a Gerudo at heart. "I'd say so, considering what I just said".

It took her a moment to register the teasing in his words, but once she did she dropped her hand and shook off her astonishment with a chuckle. "Well that's…cool. What else?"

Ignoring the odd terminology she had used, Link relaxed and shifted so his back was leaning against the wall, folding his hands together behind his head. He stared at the ceiling, the memories that had at first threatened to drown him now streaming over and around him with the tranquility of a slow-moving forest stream.

"She used to go riding long before dawn, when the desert was still chilly, to get to the Spirit Temple in time for the sunrise," he began quietly. "That's actually where I first saw her, when I went by Ocarina to meet with her sister, Ayame." Seeing Tanya's confusion, he explained, "The Chieftess is also the Sage of Spirit." Her mouth formed a small "O" of understanding; he continued, "She was sitting cross-legged on the huge statue of the Goddess of the Sand that forms the front of the Temple, atop the goddess's head. That by itself impressed me enough to go see who was up there; I only half blame my curiosity on a flashback to seeing Sheik up there."

Tanya smiled at his self-deprecating smirk, as if completely understanding his reference. A yawn caught her off-guard, though; rubbing her eyes and stretching, she apologized with a little embarrassment, "Sorry. Guess I'm more tired than I thought…"

Link shrugged it off with a small smile. "It's alright. You've had a long few days, and it's late." Though somewhat reluctant to move—apparently he was more tired than he thought, too—he forced himself to stand. "I'll let you get some rest, now. I hope I've answered a lot of your questions." Hesitantly, he added, "If…you ever need anything…"

Her eyes softened with gratitude, and another smile curved her lips. "Don't worry; you'll hear about it. I know where to find you."

That elicited a chuckle from him. "Fair enough. Good night."

"G'night, Link."

—

Antony Tor-Graecia, Lord-Duke of South Lanayra and Princess Zelda's betrothed, leaned forward on palms planted against the stone tabletop where an enormous map of Hyrule's territory—known and unknown—had been spread, weighted at the corners by heavy, polished beach rock from the duke's home province. "It sounds like the Shekiah are well off; their talents will be greatly useful against these Shadow Beasts," he observed.

Across the table from him, Link nodded, arms crossed as he watched the young noble study the new territories he had painstakingly recorded in the past few hours. A green swath that was the plains north of Hyrule Field and east of Lanayru—newly annexed Tauro Province—had been added a couple years ago, but a few inches farther up had been blank until Link filled the gaps. The ink marking Dragonclaw Gorge was still fresh, as fresh as Midna's suggestion for the unnamed landmark where she had found Tanya.

"Impaz and Hakase Elthyn have a solid plan for a multilevel defense that should prevent the Twilight from engulfing the town and the peak, or the creation of new Shadow Beasts while discouraging existing ones from entering Kakariko. They've also planned a permanent twenty-four-hour, rotating guard shift around Eldin Spring comprising of a mixed Goron-Shekiah contingent in the event Shadow Beasts or the Twilight do breach the outer village, as well as an emergency evacuation plan for moving the civilians to either Goron City or Kokiri Forest."

The door to the secondary strategy room clicked open as Link finished speaking. He and Antony both turned their heads to see Vanessa and Tanya enter, having dumped their gear in their suite of rooms and changed from travelling tunics into comfortable castle garb. Link almost did a double take at seeing Tanya in a dress-length belted tunic; she had taken some time to tame her messy travel hair and left it in a ponytail instead of the customary braid.

"Vanessa! Glad to see you could make it," Antony greeted, straightening his posture. "I trust Teresa is also doing well?"

The warrior nodded and smiled at the duke. "She's doing well, Your Grace. This trip was perfect for her; she hasn't gotten to fly cross-country like that in a year or so."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, then." He turned his smile on Tanya, studying her from head to toe. "Oh, and what have we here? A gorgeous young lady I'm sure I've heard about before, but not from where. Hmm…"

Link would have grinned, seeing Tanya's obvious discomfiture at being scrutinized—the bridge of her nose was turning red in a faint blush—but he was trying himself not to show embarrassment at Antony's antics. Of course he was familiar with the duke's playful mannerisms, but hadn't expected him to turn the full force of his charm on Tanya the moment she met him.

_'At least he's already betrothed to Zelda.'_ He smirked. _'And _she's_ mostly immune to his tricks.'_

Noticing Tanya's attempt to stutter some sort of reply to the unexpected compliment, Antony threw back his head in a rich laugh. "Don't mind me, I'm just playing." He took one of her hands in his and lifted it to his lips, placing a soft kiss on the back of her hand. "Duke Antony Tor-Graecia of Southern Lanayra, at your humble service. And you, m'lady?"

The girl made no effort to hide the haste with which she reclaimed her hand and looked down; the blush covered her cheeks now. Link shook his head, finally smiling, and decided to rescue her from her predicament. "This is Tanya Grayle, Zelda's ward and guest," he explained, walking over to stand beside her. "Tanya, as you now know, this is Antony, Zelda's betrothed and future king of Hyrule."

He ignored the sidelong glance from Tanya that screamed _"What are you talking about?"_ and studied the other two—Antony's face dawning with realization and Vanessa's shadowed by some emotion Link couldn't quite place. Antony nodded to Tanya before returning to his previous position at the map table, tracing an unseen line with his finger somewhere in Eldin Province. He looked back up as the other three assumed various positions around the table also, then cleared his throat and explained, "Zelda would have been here to give you the brief on her expectations before the generals arrive, but of course as the "unofficial" Head Royal she has to be with them instead." He glanced at a timepiece set in an alcove across the room from the door, then added, "They should be arriving within the quarter hour; plenty of time to pass on what she told me.

"First, though, I want to hear the rest of your report, Link."

The hero pressed one hand to the table and leaned most of his weight on it, staring down at the squiggles that denoted South Lanayra. He knew what the duke really meant—what he _wanted_ to hear, and what he _had_ to hear; he chose the latter.

"At last estimate, the Twilight was roughly nine days from the Eldin-Lanayru border. If our guess was correct, and the Deku Tree hasn't caved to the pressure—" Link followed the projected course with his left hand, fingers lightly brushing against the heavy parchment. "—it should have hit the forest's edge like a wave and then, when it couldn't get around the barrier, slowly pressed southward. Toward us."

His hand stopped at the split in the Zora River, turned perpendicular to the tabletop, and swept east toward the distant Gerudo Desert, encompassing the massive prairie that was Hyrule Field and Southern Lanayra. He grimly tapped the province's label with one finger. "This should be the Twilight's next target. It's a far easier nut to crack than Kakariko and Goron City, and offers easier access to the capitol once that territory comes under shadow."

Antony nodded slowly, pained eyes contemplating his province. Link sympathized with the young noble for the worry he must be feeling; the hero knew too well what he was going through. After a few moments, Antony lifted his gaze from the map and murmured, "Nine days… Zelda was right, then."

Vanessa finally spoke up: "Right about what?"

A smile twitched the duke's expression. He gave her a sly glance, then pinned his eyes squarely on Link. "She's decided to go ahead with the Harvest Ball as planned. Considering the festivities in the city began two nights ago, I think she's wise not to interrupt it for a threat which, to the public, might not even materialize."

Link felt the invisible hand of instinct grip his stomach; he had the sinking feeling he knew where Antony was going with this even as Tanya sent him and Vanessa a puzzled glance. "Harvest Ball?" she echoed vaguely—innocently.

"Part of the year-end celebration held in honor of the Goddesses who have provided the harvest of the past months and thus given us the plenty we need to survive the coming winter months," Vanessa explained. "It's _the_ party of the year for the commoners, and an excuse for the nobles to throw the most extravagant gala they can muster." Wryly, she grumbled, "Not to mention all the youngsters prance around like peacocks, sizing each other up."

Antony chuckled; Link did not like the scheming undertone he could hear in that. Only force of will kept him from backing away toward the door. "Well, yes, more or less. All the most important people are there, not to mention members from any and every noble family in Hyrule. It's a great way to develop connections and get the latest news on socioeconomic trends. Though usually they just use _that_ as an excuse to legitimize the banter and frolicking."

Tanya seemed to have similar sentiments to Link, an uncertain frown on her face and mystification in her eyes. "Oh. Well, what does that have to do with us? Shouldn't we be watching the Twilight?"

That brought a full laugh from the duke. "What? And frighten the populace, not to mention announce to anyone with eyes to see that we know something's up? No. We have to continue as if nothing is wrong so whoever's behind this gets overconfident and missteps, or isn't prepared for our counterattack. And at this point mass hysteria over a sudden, unforeseen threat is worse than not telling the public about it. So for now, we're all going to put on our courtly pretend smiles and go look like we're having fun."

"Not me," Link refused flatly, crossing his arms. "No way. You're not getting me out there, not now."

Antony raised an eyebrow at him as Vanessa and Tanya stared at him in disbelief and confusion. "Zelda's orders, Link. I don't think even you can disobey the future queen, _especially_ the Bearer of Wisdom."

He narrowed his eyes at the duke; his protest sounded petulant even to himself. "I've pulled more Bearers of Wisdom out of more fires of their own making than I care to count. And I've managed over twenty years without making an appearance at this shenanigan. I think Zelda can spare me for another one _especially_ to keep an eye on the enemy."

"That's what the Shekiah are for, Link," Antony countered. "And you said yourself they and the Gorons have things well in hand at the front line." Seeing Link's continued reluctance and stubbornness to caving: "C'mon, man, just relax and enjoy yourself for once! When's the last time you took a break?"

Link nearly froze. If he had been in wolf form, he was sure his hackles would be sticking straight up. "If not me, than who?" he growled. "The moment I let my guard down, Hyrule could fall. _That's_ why I—"

Two heavy-handed knocks on the single door cut him off just before he could get into a lecture why the Hero of Time could absolutely _not_ make a public appearance right now. Forced to shove his boiling anger back to stewing over a fire of multiple worries with Zelda's plan, Link expertly molded his expression from a scowl into the familiar mask as the door swung open.

Zelda strode confidently over the threshold, chin held high and regal blue eyes sparkling with the wisdom for which her family was well-known. In her wake came General Senier, her senior-most staff officer and General of Infantry, a grizzled veteran of over five decades whose prowess with a broadsword still proved a challenge to most of the younger officers. The fellow warrior caught Link's eyes and gave him a small nod, a smile ghosting over his creased face in greeting. Link returned it imperceptibly even as he, Vanessa, and Antony saluted Zelda with bowed heads and a fist pressed over their hearts; the remaining three generals and another man filed in as Zelda returned the salutation.

Link's eyes narrowed as he saw who the tag-along was.

"Antony. Vanessa. Link," the princess greeted warmly. She nodded to them—a cue to them to drop their salutes—and turned to introduce her staff. "Generals Senier of South Lanayra; Elwyn of Eldin; Marshall of Eldin; and Rais of North Lanayru; and the Lord-Duke Aerian Tor-Itaea, heir to North Lanayru Province."

The formalities dispensed with, Zelda spun on a heel and marched over to the table, assuming a commanding position beside Antony at the far corner. Taking a cue from her, the rest of the hastily-convened council gathered around the map—Link being sure to stand opposite Aerian, where he could keep an eye on the noble. He glanced to his left briefly as Tanya nervously shadowed his movements, peering over his shoulder to observe as Zelda untied a leather pouch from her belt and dumped the contents on the table.

She began to speak as she sorted the blue, red, yellow, green, and black-painted wooden markers. "Gentlemen, I've summoned you to this emergency meeting because we might well have a crisis on our hands. The Hero of Time has just recently returned from an expedition to the unexplored territory north of Tauro, and brought with him grave tidings of this new threat."

At a nod from the princess, Link reached across to pluck a few markers from their piles and arranged them at the northern boundary of explored Tauro Province. "There's no good way to soften the blow, so I'll just tell it straight: There's something dark lurking in the north, and it's controlling a powerful force known as the Twilight. This Twilight is a realm of shadow that swallows up the land and turns the people within its sphere into either spirits or Shadow Beasts—monstrous creatures that seek nothing more than the continuation of the Twilight's existence." After a moment spent shuffling more markers to delineate the Twilight's progress, he lifted his gaze to survey the audience. "I'd bet if you looked out the highest window in the castle, you might catch a glimpse of the Curtain—its boundaries—as it spreads closer. Inside of nine days, it will be upon us, and by then it will be too late to mount any meaningful defense by a large force against the monsters lurking inside it."

"Then what do you propose we do, Hero?" Aerian demanded, brow furrowed.

Link fought the urge to snarl silently at the noble's petulant tone. "Why are _you_ in here, anyway?"

The duke seemed taken aback at the vicious question. "My province was the first to fall! I understand what is occurring and felt my presence here to be of utmost importance. Needless to say, the princess agreed with me. Besides, I am anxious for what must be happening in my lands; it would ease my nerves greatly to know of any news from the front."

The hero glanced quickly at Zelda to get her opinion on the matter; once she seemed sure Aerian couldn't see it, she subtly rolled her eyes at the noble's pathetic whining. _"I figured it was better to keep him on a short leash than have him running around the castle blabbing nonsense about imminent doom,"_ she explained.

By addressing the generals, Vanessa saved him from saying something more to Aerian which he might regret. "We need to be sure your forces are prepared to deploy at a moment's notice; an advanced party should be sent to Kakariko within the week to support the Gorons and Shekiah already guarding the town." She planted a finger on the dot marking it. "That's the crux of our defense at this point. If Kakariko falls, we'll be forced to evacuate to the sea or make a last stand here."

Rais—also known as the Fox General, for good reason—crossed one arm over his red-robed chest, rubbing his chin with the other hand as he stared at the markers. "Do we know much about its magical properties? Is there any way we might be able to mount an internal attack or unravel parts of the wall?"

Link frowned, leaning on both palms braced against the table once more. "Unfortunately, what we do know isn't quite enough. From what the Shekiah have told me, it's highly likely they can move through it unimpeded. Elthyn gave me the impression, though, that until that theory's tested, they won't be risking a large-scale operation. So for now, the best we can hope to get is an elite squad to even attempt penetrating the curtain." He shook his head, his fingers drumming nervously on the wood under them. "No; our best hope for massing any sort of force against this, right now, is a concentration of troops in Kakariko where they'll be…protected from the Twilight's influence."

The slap of a marker roughly hitting the table snapped the tension he had felt escalating in the room as the discussion continued. Zelda's hand—holding the offending wooden disc—had smacked directly atop the mountains surrounding Kakariko. "Seeing as no one has cared to offer a better or different solution, I think we had better conclude this discussion and be on our ways. The Twilight certainly isn't going to wait for us to come to an accord on the subject.

"Senier, I trust you to make a large shift of your troops and military assets to Kakariko as quietly as possible. Leave enough strength behind to defend the capitol in the event that we fail, but don't let it weaken your force any more than is safe for those on the front lines.

"Rais." The redheaded mage straightened self-consciously as the princess addressed him. "Set a detail of our finest magicians to studying the properties of the Twilight—from a _safe_ distance. I'll see if Impaz can spare some of their spellcasters and possibly herself to aid you in this endeavor.

"Marshall, arrange for your cavalry to provide reconnaissance and flank protection along the east fork of the Zora River. I wouldn't be surprised if the enemy swung around to that softer target instead of trying to crack Kakariko, even considering the natural barriers there." She paused, during which time the tall horseman nodded his understanding. "Also, while they're at it, evacuate as much of the remaining South Lanayru population as is feasible without causing alarm. Do it in small increments if you must, but we have to avoid widespread panic at all costs.

"Elwyn, you're in charge of the castle's defense and an emergency evacuation plan. Should we lose at Kakariko, I want all the civilians evacuated in as quickly, efficiently, and calmly a manner as can be done. Contact Termina and the Great Sea Confederation to see if they might grant our citizens asylum for the duration of this conflict; you can tell them it's under my authorization if you must, but avoid disclosing the full nature of our situation when at all possible."

Seemingly satisfied with her orders, Zelda slowly surveyed the hastily-convened council, pausing briefly to meet each of their eyes. Link gave her a small nod of approval as she met his gaze; she returned it before shifting her eyes to the map. "The die is cast; all we have now to do is wait and see what turns up. May the Goddesses watch over us all.

"You are dismissed to your duties."

—

Finding her way to their quarters would have been as hard the second time as the first had she not been following Link and Vanessa. It would have been even more difficult considering how bewildered she was at everything she'd seen in the strategy room—said and unsaid. The generals' unspoken assumption of who Link was, the nobleman's odd confrontation with Link and Link's obvious distaste for the man, everyone's deference to Zelda's plan that hinged on the subtleties of something which Tanya had not understood—Link calling her Zelda's_ ward_…

Her thoughts shattered like glass as a wall of green appeared in her vision. Putting on the brakes just in time to avoid toppling both herself and Link, the girl frowned perplexedly and observed her surroundings. Link had come to a halt a few yards past the entrance to a spacious courtyard in the center of the room-suite. Even having seen it once already, Tanya couldn't help staring yet again at the intricate tiling around a multi-tiered fountain in the center, a sculpted dragon with its head stretched toward the open sky above as if yearning to fly. Water spouted from its open jaws to fall in rippling arcs back to the pool below its perch, somehow giving the impression of fire as it descended.

Tanya shook her head to derail her thoughts' train before it could even leave the station, then started to move in the direction of her new quarters. She didn't even take a moment to think why Link had stopped—she was too exhausted at this point to care—until she felt a hand on her arm arresting her forward motion.

Startled, she rocked her weight back and turned her head around to level a questioning gaze on Link. Her surprise ticked up a notch upon seeing his serious countenance—a _real_ expression, not the stony mask she only now realized he seemed to wear less and less as the days went by. His eyes betrayed the real emotion he tried not to show: concern.

"What's wrong?"

As if he had only just noticed he grabbed her arm, he quickly—almost sheepishly—released his hand. After a few moments and a deep breath, he blurted, "Promise me you'll stay away from Aerian."

Tanya blinked. That distrust she had seen earlier… Was that what she was seeing now? Or was there a true reason behind his demand? "What? Why?"

His jaw shifted slightly at the clarifying questions—not containing anger, but possibly quashing the first hints of it. "He's bad news—_very_ bad." Link looked away, as if some memory were bothering him, then offered a little hesitantly, "I should know…"

She could feel irritation at her confusion rising. _'Why is it he's _always_ like this about answering my questions…?'_

"But _why_? What did he do?"

The hero still wouldn't look at her. He seemed reluctant to explain his reasoning. "Ask Zelda, or Antony; they were both involved, too…"

_'Gah!'_ Fed up with his close-mouth attitude, she planted her hands on her hips and glared at him meaningfully. "I shouldn't _have_ to, Link. Why can't you tell me?"

Finally seeming to get her formerly-subtle hints, Link winced and cleared his throat sheepishly. Daring a glance back at her, he finally said, "Well, to put it simply, he's…a womanizer. If he gets it in his head he wants a woman, he'll do anything within his power—whatever it takes—to get her, no matter who she is."

The distrust, the suggestion to ask the betrothed royals, the new depth of character to this nobleman… Finally the pieces fell together, and Tanya's mouth fell into a small "o" of understanding. "Zelda…?"

Link nodded confirmation. "At one point, anyway. If I hadn't been around to see what he was up to, he could already be on the throne for all we know."

Tanya grimaced at the thought; what she had seen of the complaining noble was already enough to imagine that scenario. "Alright, then. Point taken."

She turned to walk away again when his hand captured her shoulder in an iron grip and turned her back to him. The urgency in his voice was too strong to ignore. "I'm _serious_, Tanya. I don't want him anywhere near you. We have enough trouble as it is; I don't want him complicating things by trapping you in his web. Please promise me you'll do your best to avoid him." He lowered his gaze, his eyes hooding what emotions they might have shown, and his voice dropped to a whisper. "_Please_…?"

Somewhat little taken aback by his fervent plea, it took her a moment to regain her composure. Finally, after some hesitation, she stuttered, "I—I promise. I'll try."

At her acquiescence, Link finally looked up and locked eyes with her. Startled, Tanya could only stare back with her own wide eyes; it felt almost as if she could almost lose herself in the endless depths of those light azure irises. Although she was sure he was entirely unconscious of the effect his eyes were having on her, she felt almost like he was letting her see his true depth for the first time. There was only relief and fierce protectiveness in his countenance, showing most strongly in his eyes.

It was a countenance so completely opposite the customary mask that she could not have moved even if she wanted.

Silence had fallen between them for what seemed hours before Link's hand finally released her arm. A few seconds later, he turned his back and quickly began to walk toward his room on the opposite side of the courtyard. Her emotions battled inside her for dominance and voice, but before he had walked more than a few yards away—

"Link!"

The hero stopped midstride as if struck by an Ice Keese, then slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder at her. Slightly surprised even by her own outburst, Tanya glanced down briefly—fiddling nervously with her fingers—before looking back up at him.

"Thank you."

And, for almost the first time, she meant it.

* * *

**A/N:** Oh. My. Freakin'. Gosh. O_O And holyfreakin'whatever. This is probably the longest chapter I've EVER written! I'm sosososososososo happy to have this chapter finally OVER with. (Actually, I was glad to even get to the cuteness at the end here, HAHA. xD) I can't _believe_ how long it took me to fight through this. I swear this is just one weeeeeird chapter. Probably because it's a transition and I honestly had no freakin' _clue_ what I was doing with it. Although I'm rather proud of the war-room gibberish at the end, lol. xP The Generals proved problematic, though; I'm _definitely_ going to go back through and add in more descriptions at some point, because I'm definitely not satisfied with it. This is what happens when you have to do character creations without the chain of command notes pertinent to their character, heh... Not to mention don't do a full set of character development sessions before writing the scene, let alone continuing it (as I did).

But I'm babbling now. I should probably just shut up-but that's why I moved this to the end of the chapter, so it wouldn't bother anyone from starting the (not-so-awesome) chapter. =P I do have to say, though; the next chapter, although I have lots of sweetness ideas for it (and am actually RPing them ahead of time, thank God! learned my lesson here, heh...), might be a while in coming. I'm studying abroad the next two months, and although I likely won't give up writing on this (because my Muse has been starved of long writing sessions for the past God-knows-how-many-months) any writing will be sporadic at best. So, yeah; don't be surprised if it takes another three months for a new chapter to appear. ...Especially as in three months I'll be back at school. Goody goody, heh... xD Ah well. Thanks so much for getting this far, and if you made it through this author's note, double kudos to you, haha! ^^ (Reviews are glorious. Especially long ones. Ask anyone who's given one of those, I love to respond to them and then get to chatting! ^^)

Ciao! [lessthan3]

~Zel

P.s.-**EDITED** 8/22/12 Just the end was changed, but it needed it!


	10. Felis et Musculus

**A/N: **This was far too long in coming. I originally was going to add a whole 'nother scene, but decided this chapter had gone on long enough where it ends right now, and I could make the next chap a short one if I end up not having as much material as I originally thought (or, things will get rearranged, which is probably for the better anyway). Plus, I kinda hit Wrytorz Blok on the next scene, and the line I had for the opening of it was perfect for a chapter opening, so I think it'll all work out for the best.

Anywho, I'll let you get to it now. 'Tis time to set the stage, "In fair Hyrule/where we lay our scene..."

* * *

**Chapter 10: _Felis et Musculus_**

Link thought he could possibly understand Navi's irritation at trying to wake him up all those years ago, now.

Tanya was either incredibly tired, or a very heavy sleeper.

He had tried being polite already. When the hero had risen shortly after the first rays of dawn fluttered into his room and seen she wasn't yet awake, he had given her another half hour and the benefit of the doubt. After all, a lot had happened in just a very short two weeks, give or take a few days; she deserved some time to recuperate and prepare for the certain hardships ahead.

Part of the problem, though, was those preparations involved more than sleeping.

So when an hour had rolled by, and the time for her first lessons of the day neared, Link had politely knocked on her door. Rather loudly, but not enough to cause a racket to wake the dead.

Apparently, that was what Tanya needed; because when he peeked inside and found the sheets tangled around a misshapen but distinctly human form, the cover pulled over a lump that was obviously her head, he recognized the telltale signs of someone deep in sleep and not about to wake soon.

So he should have been ready for the inevitable grumbling when he yanked the sheets.

Nothing prepared him for the catapult attack.

_'At least I know there's a fighter in there somewhere,'_ Link mused a short time later as he watched her adjust a new sword's bandoleer across her chest. Rubbing his arm ruefully—he was sure it was lightly bruised—he added, _'And a wildcat, at that. …Or, more correctly, a dragon.'_

He probably would have garnered more than a token bruise if she had been in that form, however.

The warrior-turned-reluctant-instructor dragged his mind back to the present as Tanya awkwardly stretched an arm over her head in a reach for her sword's hilt, the oddest look of concentration he'd yet seen on her face. Realizing they would have to start from _under_ the ground up with her sword skills, he rolled his eyes and strode over to a stack of practice weaponry.

"Here."

She squeaked rather comically as the thrown wooden sword slapped into her body and she was forced to flail for a grip or drop it. Either way she ended up embarrassed—yet somehow glaring daggers at him at the same time—but seemed to opt for looking silly over the shame of being unable to catch a simple stick.

Somehow, this managed to inject a little humor into his mood.

Link became grateful for that when he saw her try to hold the stick-weapon and realized his hasty, impromptu instructions on the road had been barely enough to keep her from hurting herself with a real sword.

_'This is going to be a long morning.'_

"Use that for now."

The girl blinked, uncomprehending green eyes staring blankly at him. "Why?"

He bit back an irritated sigh. "So we don't slice each other to ribbons at the first go," he explained as if to a child.

He forced himself to ignore the pang that rocked his heart at that analogy and concentrated on her muttered words.

"More like so _you_ don't chop _me_ to ribbons."

Link didn't grace that with a comment; it didn't help she was mostly right. He flicked a hand at her. "Now assume a stance."

That only brought him another doe-in-the-wolf's-stare look. "What?"

If she couldn't even figure that out, Goddesses help them… He couldn't suppress the irritation in his voice this time. "Just do it."

_Farore_, he wasn't cut out to be a teacher.

"But what about warming up?" she protested. It almost sounded like she was appalled at the notion—or lack thereof.

"There won't be any."

"But—"

His temper snapped. "Because most fights don't wait for you to loosen up; you have to make do with what you've got when it jumps you—_that's_ why." Realizing how judgmental that had sounded—she couldn't have known any better—Link softened his next directive. "So—show me your stance."

Despite her mutterings, which he ignored, the hero was relieved to see that Tanya seemed to accept this reasoning; she awkwardly shuffled her feet and adjusted her grip on the rough weapon in her hand. Link eyed her form critically, the flaws standing out like hundreds of bright suns to his many lifetimes' worth of training and experience: the lack of balance; the stiffness in her arms; the flat and narrow positioning of her feet; but most of all the lack of confidence in her emerald eyes.

His lips pressed into a flat line, and he shook his head slowly. _'We've definitely got our work cut out for us…'_

"It's…not bad."

At least he could say that much, because it was true. While her feet were too narrow for a ready defensive stance in most sword disciplines, she had at least turned her side to the imaginary enemy. Granted, it was because she was an instinctive archer and had adapted that familiar stance for this purpose.

But at least it was a start.

"It's not archery, Tanya, although your torso position is mostly correct; that allows for the smallest target presented to an opponent. _However_—" Having walked over to her as he spoke, Link now paused to kick at the inside or outside of her feet to manipulate them into the right stance. She awkwardly picked up on his meaning and followed his lead, staring down at her feet as if memorizing their positioning right there could perfect her technique overnight. "—you need to be able to advance and retreat in a split second. Now bend your knees more and shift your weight slightly forward. Kind of like you're riding, so you're balanced over your center of gravity."

Link watched appraisingly as she awkwardly made the adjustments, but somehow she only made herself look like a particularly stiff and ridiculous doll. Strangling his exasperated groan, he put one hand on her upper back and the other on her stomach then applied pressure like he would to Epona, trying to _show _her the correct angle instead of making futile explanations.

_'That looks a little better.'_

"That should feel a little more balanced, now." She nodded slowly, again seeming to burn the position into her muscle memory. Stepping back a small pace, he ordered, "Now try a swing."

As if trying not to ruin her stance, Tanya hesitantly and stiffly swung the practice sword in a vertical arc. He sighed and put the fingertips of one hand to his temples, the hope he'd dared harbor upon seeing her improved stance evaporating. "Okay… You have to _move_ when you attack, at least with your arm. You're not a doll; the rest of your body's connected to your arm, and your power comes from there," he lectured. "Especially with you—your arms aren't strong enough alone to make a powerful blow against, say, a Lizalfos. You're going to have to rely on speed and precision to do major damage, but that doesn't totally negate force as a factor."

Link paused a moment in thought. This wasn't working; he had to try a different approach… A few seconds later, the Master Sword was in his hand, and he stood across from Tanya.

"Here; try copying what I do."

It was a good thing Link's primary occupation was warrior—or hero—because by the time a maid came around to collect Tanya for her next scheduled lesson, he had figured out he _definitely_ wasn't cut out to be a teacher.

_'I'm surprised I managed so well with Vanessa, to be honest,'_ he mused, lightly dabbing a towel at a few beads of sweat on his forehead. His ears picked up light and easy booted footsteps drumming against the packed earth of the sparring ring not two seconds later; he turned to see the object of his thoughts crossing the arena to meet him. His lips twitched with amusement.

_'Speak of the dragoness…'_

"Finally! Maybe I'll get a decent work-out in," Link greeted with a half-hearted grumble. He offered a wan smile after to show he was joking as she stretched her arms over her head.

Vanessa chuckled, dropping her arms to adjust her sword's bandoleer and straighten the amethyst tunic she'd chosen for training this morning. Link couldn't help equating it to the color of Teresa's scales. "Tanya giving you trouble, O' Masterful One?" she teased.

He sighed at the reminder of that near-disaster of a training session. "Of a sorts. I can't remember the last time I had to instruct a greenhorn in the ways of the sword. For that matter, I can't remember the last time—other than you—I've had to teach _anything_. At least where weaponry is concerned," he complained. With a wry grin, he clarified, "And you came with prior knowledge and experience. The best Tanya seems to have had is self-taught archery." Remembering the alternatives he'd come up with, he sighed with resignation. "I guess we're lucky she even has that…"

She clapped his shoulder twice in sympathy. "It's alright. You'll find your footing shortly, I'm sure. After all, what's a little lesson after all you've done already, right?" A grin split her face, and with a wink she spun away toward the arena. "C'mon, now; I'm sure a little sparring match will cheer you right up."

A wan smile crossed his face; somehow, she could hit the nail right on the head when he was feeling down or frustrated. Link wasn't exactly sure what it was, but he was certainly grateful for the trait right now. As he scooped up a random shield lying around and followed her into the sparring circle, though, he couldn't help but think, _'She sure seems buoyant this morning. Wonder what's gotten her in such a mood…'_

All excessive thoughts dropped away as the other warrior swiftly pivoted around to come at him with her sword extended. The shield came up instinctively to block the sudden attack, and they spun quickly into a familiar dance of whirling steel. A flurry of strokes ended in a lock; Link quickly twisted away from her, leading into a horizontal slash easily countered by Vanessa's shield. She spun into a mirrored swing aimed at his head, but he easily deflected it with his shield as his sword thrust in for the kill. Having anticipated the opening she would leave, though, the girl twisted out of the way and disengaged, backpedaling to gain a few steps' worth of maneuvering room.

Link wasn't going to let her off that easily, however. Pressing his advantage, he rained down quick, deliberate blows that forced her to continue retreating to regain her balance. To her credit, she didn't panic or turn away, but met every stroke as best she could, holding ground wherever she could before ceding to her opponent's superior strength and skill.

She couldn't keep it up forever, unfortunately.

Vanessa sighed in resignation, looking up along the silver length of the Master Sword at Link from where she had fallen flat on her butt from a misstep. "Guess I need to go back to footwork drills," she commented ruefully, her lips pursed but eyes sparkling with a hint of mirth.

He merely chuckled and offered her a hand up, which she accepted graciously.

She dusted herself off and retrieved her weapons while Link sheathed his sword and returned his borrowed shield to its place on the rack. As he toweled the sweat from his face, the hero played back the sparring match in his mind, looking for places where his student could improve. A few points were expected if not obvious—her willingness to open her back to the enemy, her reluctance to counterattack with fierceness equal to her opponent's—but…

It hit him like a stroke from the Megaton Hammer as he watched her inspect her sword and shield's condition. Although there were some flaws still to be addressed, they were fewer than they ever had been. Vanessa had performed remarkably well under the stress; Link's words about getting a good work-out in had turned out to be true, as well.

All were indications that he had little left to teach the Mistress of Light.

Seeing her finally approach him, Link quickly shook those thoughts out of his mind and instead distracted himself with a question. "Any luck with the search?"

She paused, realized what he was asking, and then grinned. "We're getting close. We found mentions of the old dragon clans from Death Mountain in some pre-Imprisoning War records. I haven't gotten to read them in-depth yet—the librarian kicked me out when she'd seen I was still in there around midnight—but Zelda had them transferred to my room to read after breakfast."

The good news and Vanessa's beaming expression lifted his heart. _'Finally _something_'s going right.'_

"That's great, Vanessa!" he congratulated, clapping her shoulder heartily and chuckling. "I can only imagine Teresa's excitement."

The warrior laughed and returned his gesture. "If it weren't for the Twilight, I think she would have zipped out to Death Mountain faster than you can say "_dragon_"."

At the reminder of the threat still facing them, Link's heart sank and his smile slowly melted away. His hand gripped her shoulder tightly as her expression also fell. "I made a promise, Vanessa; nothing will change that. As soon as this is over, I'll help you find Teresa's family."

She looked down as if contemplating something. A moment later, Link's muscles tensed in surprise as Vanessa hugged him tightly around the torso. After some hesitation, he relaxed and returned the hug with one arm, his other hand resting atop her head where she had tucked it into the crook of his shoulder and neck.

"Thank you," she whispered. "For everything."

That elicited a quiet chuckle from him. "Thank me when we succeed, okay?"

To his surprise, as they stood there wrapped in each other's embrace, he realized something had crept into his heart while he wasn't looking. Something he hadn't felt in a long time—why it had taken him until now to figure it out. His carefully constructed walls, meant to protect his scarred, fragile heart from the ravages of Time, had been crumbling for longer than he thought, without him ever really noticing.

Underneath was _affection_.

It had started with Vanessa; she was almost like the little sister he had never had. The feelings were the same he felt for Saria, the only friend remaining from that far-off, dream-like time known as his childhood. Link almost regretted the intermittent times he had spent with Vanessa since they returned to Hyrule two years ago; for saving his life, the least he could have done was paid her more attention. He'd basically just stuck around a month to make sure the Labrynnian had settled in, then left her with Zelda while he disappeared yet again.

That had been to retrieve Tanya—and after that, his walls had been harder than ever to maintain.

The thought suddenly made him tense, and he mentally shook his head at the folly. _'What in the Dark Realm am I thinking?'_

Deciding it had been more than long enough, Link forced himself to put his hands on Vanessa's shoulders and gently break away from the hug. Keeping his hands where they were, he looked down at the girl and reminded, "Now, don't you have somewhere to be shortly?" When she merely lifted an eyebrow at him like he didn't know what he was talking about, he added gently, "Like, a meeting with your superiors over unit assignment?"

Two seconds and a pair of wide hazel eyes later, Link laughed as Vanessa turned and darted for the entrance. She only paused to throw a brief "Thanks again, Link!" over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner.

—

"Can you explain to me, please—_again_—why this is all so necessary?" Tanya complained loudly.

This time, she could almost hear the sigh Zelda suppressed from across the room. "You have been granted attendance to the prestigious Harvest Festival Ball, Tanya. You can't just expect to be handed a gown with instructions to go have fun any way you please."

"It's not like I invited _myself_," she interrupted pointedly.

Oh, how she wished she could face the princess. Alas, she was stuck atop a stool with the threat that if she moved more than an inch without permission, she'd be stuck with a needle as long as her finger. So Tanya grit her teeth and glared at the wall instead, allowing herself to at least cross her arms so Zelda would see the irritation coming off her in waves.

Ignoring the seamstress' indignant command to hold still while she worked on the skirt, Tanya added, "You could have just left me to my own devices, you know; then you wouldn't have to worry about all this hullabaloo."

It had been too much to hope Zelda would cave to the argument she'd been touting for the past two days every second she could spare the breath. The princess used the same counter-argument every time, and every time it made far too much sense. "The nobles would grow suspicious of my taking in some random orphan off the street and making her my ward because I felt like it, no matter if it were the Hero of Time who approved. Not only that, but we can't use that argument because we're trying to keep Link's presence secret from the general populace. Not that it has happened on a wide scale in the past, but everyone knows an active sighting of Link means evil is afoot, and people may panic. We just can't afford that at the moment."

Now Tanya truly scowled. _'Wish I was back in sparring with him.'_ Her back twinged at the reminder of the bruises there, but she sternly reminded herself, _'Better than all the politics and language and whatever the hell else Zelda's trying to cram in my head for a celebration which I honestly have no clue or reason why I'm attending!'_

She suddenly understood Link's aversion to such festivities and preparation—and she couldn't say she blamed him.

Sighing, the girl tried a new tactic: "So, then, why doesn't _Link_ have to go through all these preparations? The least he could do is be subject to the same torture…"

The chuckle Zelda gave at hearing the bitter note in Tanya's voice did nothing to better her mood. "You forget his age. He's had a wardrobe for such occasions since long before either of us were born and has attended many of these in his lifetime. Not to mention he practically got to watch as customs evolved over the course of his lifetime; he probably knows them like the back of his hand by now, and even if he doesn't, he knows how to fake it. You, on the other hand, have exactly zero experience in such an environment."

Finally the seamstress allowed Tanya to turn so the woman could attack the other side of her bodice. Throwing her hands in the air at the seeming contradiction she had just heard, the girl countered exasperatedly, "All the more reason why I _shouldn't_ go to this thing! How do you know I won't be a bumbling idiot and make a fool of you as well as myself?"

"Because I trust you to be a big girl and use your instincts," Zelda said encouragingly, giving her a small smile despite the frown still on Tanya's face. "You can handle _that_, surely. All this is simply to be sure you are as well prepared as possible." As she leaned back on the couch on which she was sitting, she inquired with a knowing smirk, "Now, how have lessons with Link been going?"

That simply worsened her mood, especially when the seamstress accidentally poked her side and a bruise there screamed in protest of the extra abuse. Against the woman's admonishment, Tanya crossed her arms again and leveled her glare at the door.

_'It's so far away…'_ she thought wistfully.

"If you call "getting whacked over and over again until either you stop making a billion mistakes or your limbs fall off" a "lesson", then excellently, I suppose."

Peals of laughter drew her eyes back to Zelda, who daintily held her hand in front of her mouth out of polite habit. Tanya pouted and complained, "You don't know what it's like, having to deal with him in that capacity! I swear you'd think he'd never taught before; it's all I can do just to copy him, and that works better than him explaining!" When Zelda's laughter only increased, Tanya frowned more deeply and demanded petulantly, "What's so funny?"

Once the princess managed to regain her composure, she said simply, "You must not know the Hero very well if that is all you think about his teaching style." She raised an eyebrow at Tanya, suddenly serious. "How much _do _you really know, after all?"

Tanya barely felt the change in the mood, it was so subtle. Caught off-guard, the girl merely blinked and allowed the seamstress to pry her arms apart in order to ensure the gussets did not hinder their upward movement. As soon as she regained power over her tongue, she stuttered, "Uh, w-well…"

And then she thought—really _thought_, for once, instead of reacting. How much _had_ Link told her since he'd dragged her to Hyrule? When it all boiled down, essentially he'd given her the bare minimum: Her parentage, a hint of her past, and the ever-so-important tidbit that he was actually immortal.

Her first reaction, at that realization, was to give in to the ever-boiling anger just under the surface that seemed a regular part of her life in Hyrule and demand more answers—a full accounting—from the hero. Probably the simple fact she couldn't due to the constrictive dress and more-constrictive seamstress were the only things that held her in check long enough for another realization to hit her.

_'I've been treating him like a videogame character this whole time.'_

She had no reason to be acting like she had so far. Just because ninety-nine percent of the factors that created Link or appeared to be Link presented themselves did not mean she had the right to think she knew a person named Link. The immortality was just the tip of that iceberg she hadn't stopped to consider before trying to steer around it.

If she weren't careful, she could end up like the _Titanic_.

Zelda's soft voice shattered her oceanic contemplations. "I think it's time we started your dance lesson for today."

Startled, Tanya snapped her head up to see the princess standing beside her, the seamstress evidently dismissed. She blinked, but Zelda's hand on her shoulder distracted her from any questions she might have voiced. "Come."

—

Rhythmic counting directed Link's steps through the halls from his initial destination. When a maid had found him in his quarters to inform him that Zelda requested his presence, at first he thought something had gone wrong or the Shekiah had unearthed some new piece of intelligence on the Twilight. But then the young lady had assured him it was nothing of the sort, and the hero was left puzzled over the reason for his abrupt summons.

Until he reached the room to which he had been directed, at least. Finding a lack of royal presence in the simple room, Link instead followed his ear just as he had followed Saria's ocarina through the Lost Woods in order to find the Forest Temple so long ago. A sinking suspicion grew in him as he approached the familiar sounds, however—one he hoped had no depth, for once.

Unfortunately, he tended toward uncanny accuracy when it came to such deductions.

Some yards before he could reach the source of the counting, it stopped. With his suspicions growing stronger, Link quickened his steps until he finally rounded a corner into the smaller, regular-use ballroom on the upper levels of the castle.

He was just in time to see Antony disappear through another exit, leaving Zelda and Tanya by themselves in the vaulted room. Before he could backpedal and run away from the warning of "Danger!" given by a screaming little voice in the back of his head, however, Zelda spotted him.

"Ah, Link! What good timing. Please, come in."

Link stifled a groan and approached as Zelda continued explaining, "We were just discussing ways in which we might find some new partners for Tanya to practice. After all, there will be many willing volunteers at the Ball, but that doesn't help right now." The princess met Tanya's eyes and winked meaningfully. "After all, wouldn't want her stepping on the poor boys' toes—right, Tanya?"

He opened his mouth to say something about how she would probably rather do that on purpose and crush their toes. But anything he might have wanted to say vanished the moment he laid eyes on Tanya.

The girl quickly looked away, but Link couldn't. The hunter-green dress she wore brought out both the green in her eyes and curves he had never really noticed before because he had only ever seen her in unflattering tunics. This dress, though, fit snugly around her chest, waist, and hips and flared into a skirt that reminded him of a waterfall ending at the floor. Her upper arms peeked through the thinner fabric of her sleeves where they had been slit, but cascaded in Zora-like fins from the elbow that gave her every gesture an air of grace to match how he felt when swinging the Master Sword. What drew his eye the most though was the glint of gold nestled at the hollow of her exposed throat—the pendant she constantly carried with her.

Tearing his eyes away from the impromptu examination, Link looked up to find Tanya avoiding his gaze and blushing deeply even under the medium tan she had acquired since coming to Hyrule. Almost equally embarrassed, the hero turned to Zelda and asked plainly, "You wanted to see me?"

The wicked smile on her face did nothing for his sudden nerves. "It's not terribly important and can wait until Tanya's lesson is finished. However, something came up, and Antony had to leave to attend to it. Would you mind terribly stepping in for him?" Her smile morphed into a smirk, knowing she had him. "I'm sure you could use the refresher anyway before the Ball."

Link stared at her, comprehending and yet refusing to accept the underlying meaning. _"Well, seeing as how I have no choice, really, guess I'll have to comply, won't I?"_

Her smirk simply grew. "Whenever you two are ready. I'll keep count. We'll start with a simple waltz and see how that goes," she called out as she spun away to give the pair some space.

He thought it was a much too _happy_ spin to bode well for him. Or either of them, he decided as he reluctantly turned back to face Tanya. When she refused to look up at him but instead ducked her head and hid her hands behind her back out of nervousness, the hero sighed.

_'Looks like I'm going to have to lead. …Naturally.'_

"I promise not to step on your feet, Tanya," he said with quiet humor, reaching out to grasp her hands. He could feel the resistance in her muscles, but after a moment the girl allowed him to pull her arms out and set them into the correct position for the dance. Releasing the hand he had placed on his shoulder, Link gently tipped her chin up so he could see her eyes. "Hey. Just do this one dance, and then you can be done, okay?" Lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, he added teasingly, "I'll do my best to distract Zelda while you make a run for it. Sound like a plan?"

That finally elicited a soft giggle, and she relaxed a fraction even as Link stepped closer to properly complete the frame for the waltz. _"Just follow my lead,"_ he whispered in her mind, the thought a gentle brush against the thin wall separating them.

He was not prepared for its sudden disappearance, like a floor dropping out from under his feet. Ice-cold shock engulfed his mind for a moment as it was thrown into a mass of confused emotions. Sparrows of thought darted through the gale, ranging from confusion to curiosity to fear. He clung tightly to a simple thread of identity that was the only thing preventing him from becoming completely lost in the storm. That pause was the only breath he took before diving into the heart of the uncontrolled tempest to reinstate order. It took a few moments that felt like an eternity, but sooner rather than later he had the tangle pulled apart and each emotion sorted back where it belonged.

What remained was a profound silence that shocked him nearly as much as the initial plunge.

Link blinked, finding himself now staring directly into Tanya's eyes a mere second after he had spoken. The incredible speed with which the entire encounter had passed spun his head more than the event itself, but what truly awed him was the change in the green eyes looking back at him. He could swear they seemed aglow with some inner light that hadn't been there before, a sort of knowledge and peace of mind he could easily sense from their close thoughts.

_"I've never had this happen before"_ ghosted through his mind and to Tanya before he could stop or hide it. However, there wasn't enough time to keep contemplating the seemingly momentous occurrence before Zelda's voice reached him. Apparently Tanya heard it, too, because he could easily feel her spike of fear, nervousness, and uncertainty when the princess instructed them to begin.

_"Relax,"_ he soothed, stepping forward and gently pressing on her hand in the same direction. The girl wordlessly caved to the light pressure and mirrored his motion, her feet stutter-stepping to move out of his way. Sympathizing with her beginner attempts, he simply said, _"Let me guide you."_

_"How…?"_ Her voice ghosted timidly through his mind, as if afraid of a repeat of the previous disaster.

His hand on her shoulder blade guided her weight to the side for the second part of the box step. Tanya's grip on his other hand tightened suddenly, using it for balance until she could catch up with Zelda's barely-audible count. Mentally sighing, he whispered, "Just follow my lead."

A subtle release across their connection informed him she had acquiesced. Her muscles remain tensed, but as they continued the repetitive, rhythmic motions she gradually began to loosen up under his guiding hands. Now that he wasn't nearly as focused on moving through the steps, though, he found his mind in danger of losing stray thoughts to their temporary telepathic bond. Doing the only thing he could think to prevent that, Link instead concentrated on the empty plain dividing their minds and projected a ghostly image of their dance.

Moments of calm blanketed the atmosphere, as if sitting in the quiet presence of friendship, before the ghostly duo performed a graceful spin and returned to their waltz. Realizing it had been a reflection of his own thoughts, Link sheepishly ventured, _"Would you…feel comfortable trying that? Has Zelda taught you?"_

The girl spared a moment from watching her feet to glance at his face, then quickly leveled her gaze at somewhere around his collar instead. He had to stifle a chuckle at the blush still covering her nose and cheeks—and that gave him pause.

Since when had he laughed so easily?

Tanya's soft voice broke that line of thought. "Y-yes, she has. I've done it with Antony, but…"

The tone of hesitation was all he needed to know she hadn't done so well in previous attempts. Mustering his courage, Link assured, _"Don't worry. It's really very simple."_ He nodded to the ghost image as they tried a few more spins. _"Just do as they do."_

Zelda's voice finally registered in their minds. "One-two-three, one-two-three…"

Link picked up on it, then quietly instructed Tanya when to move before asking, "Ready?" At her nod, he whispered the count a few more times before lifting his left hand—the one holding Tanya's—a few inches to allow the girl space and guidance for the spin. She quickly turned a full circle on the ball of one foot, the other swinging to fall into the next step of the box, but she misjudged and stumbled slightly. Only Link's raised and quickly lowered hand plus a swift return of the other hand to her shoulder allowed her to regain her balance. A few steps later, they had regained the rhythm in time to reach a halt per Zelda's sudden order.

They could barely hear her comment for the lack of volume with which she said it. "I believe that will be enough for today."

Despite the apparent dismissal, neither dancer could find the willpower to move. Link's eyes had locked with Tanya's again, and he was nearly unnerved to see the overpowering _trust_ blanketing every other emotion he'd seen in the past ten minutes. He simply couldn't fathom what had happened to engender the look—

—but what truly frightened him was a distinct lack of the centuries-old barriers he had worked so hard to build.

"Go get washed up for dinner, Tanya."

It were almost as if Zelda's voice became the popped lock to a gate and Tanya a horse; the girl in his arms hurriedly took a step back before pivoting and fleeing for the exit. Link could merely stand dumbfounded in place as a formerly-welcome barrier suddenly slammed between their recently connected psyches and the warmth from her body slowly evaporated.

A hand on his shoulder finally broke the spell. "She's improved so much in just a few short days," Zelda murmured, coming forward to stand beside the hero.

Link scowled and crossed his arms, their telepathic encounter all too fresh in his mind. "You should be training her magic. Forget all this political nonsense; she needs to control _that_, or it'll get her worse than dead."

He heard the princess sigh quietly, but didn't acknowledge it with further argument; she knew he was right. And even though he wasn't as skilled an empath as the Bearer of Wisdom, he could tell that was not about what she had wanted to speak with him.

"What have you told Tanya about her…situation?"

The hero could sense an underlying agenda behind the loaded question. Feeling his wolf hackles lift at the challenge in her tone, Link growled, "I've answered her questions. I've told her what she needs to know—about her parents, the Triforce, and her past. Can't _you_ be satisfied if she is?"

He didn't like the look Zelda gave him. It spoke of greater knowledge and equal dissatisfaction…with _him_. "You must not be seeing the helplessness she's wanting to show. She tries so hard to be strong, but it can be difficult with the most knowledgeable source of information locked tighter than a castle entrance under siege."

A sideways glance at her showed him that the princess wouldn't budge no matter how he argued this. "So what are you saying? It's not like I've withheld anything she's asked for."

She narrowed her eyes. "Answering only what she asks and withholding information are not at all different, Link. What does she know about her family other than that they lived here and sacrificed themselves to buy her safety?" At Link's silence, Zelda whispered, "She's still in the dark, isn't she?"

His slow nod felt incriminating even to himself. The princess sighed and turned to squarely face him, lips pursed in disappointment. "You're going to have to tell her sooner or later. _You_, and soon. Understand? Goddesses know what it'll do to her if she finds out at the wrong moment from the wrong person." She put an imploring hand on his upper arm, her voice quiet again. "She holds the fate of Hyrule in her hands—somehow, even if we don't know exactly. We can't afford for her to be distracted."

Link snorted. "As if these lessons aren't a distraction, too."

Zelda simply sighed. "Just…think about it, please. There should be no reasons not to trust one another, and having all the information goes a long way toward that." She leveled a commanding stare at him.

"That includes Vanessa."

—

_Sheik,_

_The curtain will be drawn and the windows shuttered shortly, so please don't be alarmed. The guests you sent are settled in the attic and enjoying the festivities here. I hope things are well on your end, also. More light would be appreciated as soon as you can spare it, though; the illumination would be incredibly useful._

_No news yet from the north. The rocks are unsettled and the trees groan ominously at night. It does not seem to be hindering the celebrations any, however, and we plan to continue as discussed._

_Time is of the essence._

_Hikage_

Tanya blinked as she came to the end of the missive she had retrieved at Zelda's request, pausing at the bottom of the stairs leading up the tower that housed the messenger bird eyries. The long skirt of her plain white dress swished quietly around her feet but didn't trip her up this time like it had in the past. She spared a brief flicker of a smile for that observation before returning her thoughts to the cryptic note in her hands.

_'What the hell does this mean? I can't make heads or tails of it.'_ She frowned, then sighed and rolled her eyes at herself. _'It's not for me, anyway. Stupid curiosity… I just hope Zelda can understand more of it than me.'_

Carefully rerolling the parchment, the girl looked up and down the hallway to determine how she should retrace her steps. Unfortunately, in the mere four days she'd been at the castle, there hadn't been enough time to really learn her way around. Sure, Zelda's directions had been simple enough to follow when she had been concentrating on them, but now Tanya couldn't remember how to get back.

Deciding she might as well take this opportunity to explore—maybe she would stumble upon the room where she had her lessons—Tanya nervously set off down the hall to the left. At the next fork she paused again, shifting her gaze from one hall to the next before sighing. "Ah, heck with it," she muttered, taking the right corridor.

At least this one seemed more inviting than the others; display tables bearing jars of pressed flowers dotted the walls to either side between the widely-spaced doors lining the hall, and occasionally she spent a moment studying a thick tapestry before moving on. Something about the nearly-deserted corridors set her on edge, however, preventing her from truly appreciating the islands of beauty she passed in her wanderings.

_'This is stupid,'_ she grumbled to herself, stopping at yet another tapestry down another gray-stone hallway that looked just like the rest. Frustrated, she turned to the nearest door and stood contemplating it with hands planted on hips, eyes narrowed. After a good minute of studying its dark-stained carved façade, she finally growled, "Oh, hell with it. I'm never going to find my room unless I start opening doors."

Just as Tanya took a step and lifted her hand toward the latch, however, the _click_ of the mechanism warned her someone had beaten her to the punch. Stuffing down her second of slight embarrassment, the girl hurriedly dropped her hand and stepped back as the door swung open to admit a vaguely familiar person.

She shifted back another pace, trying not to stare with an open mouth, as the large man crossed the threshold into the hall and closed the door behind him. After a few moments, she finally forced her slightly wide eyes to climb up from the dark blue vest over a white ruffle-collared shirt to a neatly-trimmed chinstrap beard that defined a heavy, square jaw. Above that was a pair of loam-brown eyes which were somehow discomfiting to Tanya.

Tanya ducked her head before he could catch her examining—or staring at—the noble. "D-Duke—er, Your Grace," she stuttered anxiously, throwing a curtsey in for good measure when she remembered Zelda's drilling in etiquette. "I'm so sorry to intrude, I was just—"

The girl chopped her sentence short when he held up a beringed hand to interrupt her. "No need, fair maiden," he rumbled with a small smile.

She didn't like how that smile didn't reach those dark eyes.

"I was just going for a little stroll in the fresh air," Aerian continued, turning as if to move down the hall but then pausing. "Would you happen to be lost?"

For a moment, Tanya could only stare apprehensively. Link's warning had ghosted across her mind upon first sight of Aerian, but somehow she had difficulty holding onto that thought. It was almost as if a light mist were obscuring it, preventing her from chasing after and holding on to the words. Aerian's uncanny guess at her predicament wasn't making her feel any more comfortable with the situation, either.

_'But I don't want to be wandering around here all afternoon, either,'_ she reasoned, nodding in response to Aerian's question.

His smile brightened somewhat, an unnerving glitter in his eyes as he offered his arm to her. "Well then, it would be my honor and privilege to escort you to your destination, Miss…?"

Behind the sudden panic and urge to shy away, her first instinct was to lie. Seeing no other way out of her predicament, Tanya reluctantly rested her hand atop the nobleman's arm. "Teresa," she muttered quickly.

"A charming name, m'dear," he complimented smoothly. She couldn't help the shiver along her spine at the knowing hint she swore she heard in those words, however—especially when he off-handedly added, "Did you happen to know you share a name with Lady Vanessa's dragon?"

Her heart pounding in her throat, the girl swallowed and squeaked, "Really? I never would have guessed! How fascinating."

Aerian made no comment as they began walking, every step feeling like torture as Tanya tried not to cling to the man's large arm. She was acutely aware of how much bigger he was—probably at least two heads taller—and how easily he could overpower her if he so desired.

She couldn't remember why, but she knew it was supposed to be important she stayed away from this man.

An idea suddenly crossed her mind. "How do you know where I'm trying to go?" Tanya questioned, casting a wary sidelong glance at the relative giant.

Aerian paused, almost throwing her for a misstep, before apparently catching himself and continuing at his leisurely pace. "I recall your appearance from the strategy meeting a few days ago. I merely assumed you must then be a ward of Her Highness to be present there, and thus you will be familiar with the lower east wings of the castle. Returning you to those surroundings should be sufficient for you to recover your orientation. Forgive me if I have presumed too much in my haste to aid a fair young maid such as yourself."

Shocked by the detailed and thoughtful response—not to mention blushing at yet another subtle compliment—Tanya meekly looked away. "N-not at all, Your Grace. Those are very wise and observant deductions. I should not have doubted you," she apologized.

An uneasy silence descended between them again as Aerian continued to lead her through hallways and down staircases. Tanya's nervousness alternately sat like a rock at the bottom of her stomach and writhed like snakes whenever she simply thought about the situation, but helplessness overrode all and kept her chained to this strange nobleman. It wasn't until they passed a familiar suit of armor beside a particular tapestry in a brightly lit corridor that she began to believe she now had an inkling of where she was—but unfortunately it wasn't enough. They turned down yet another gray-stone hall and the girl was lost again within thirty feet.

At last, after rounding the next corner into a larger carpeted hallway, the sound of other footsteps ignited new hope within her. She tried not to show relief as the footsteps' owner came into view.

_'Link! Oh thank Farore—'_

"Ah, Hero! Good afternoon," Aerian hailed pleasantly.

Link's icy eyes were far from pleasant, but his voice betrayed none of what those orbs were saying. "Your Grace. I see you have located my charge for me."

_"You can let go of his arm now, Tanya,"_ his terse voice cut through her dulled faculties.

As if surfacing from a pool, Tanya's brain kicked back into gear. Her hand nearly leapt off Aerian's like a scalded cat as the duke calmly explained, "She merely happened to show up at my door like a lost puppy as I was leaving for a casual walk. Of course I could not just leave poor Miss Teresa to wander by her lonesome—and her company was much appreciated as well."

Tanya did not like the relishing tone she heard laced into those words. Spooked, she quickly moved to stand beside Link as he came to a stop before Aerian, eyes narrowed calculatingly. Tanya could feel the tension stretched between them like a bowstring despite their outwardly polite conversation.

"I appreciate the assistance," Link at last grudgingly admitted, "but seeing as Miss Teresa is safely returned, I don't believe your services will be required any longer."

Aerian's body visibly tightened at the veiled insult, but there was nothing more the nobleman could do than incline his head in acknowledgement. "It was no problem at all," he assured icily—a harsh contrast to the smirk and purr he turned on Tanya. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Teresa. I hope to see you around again." With a bow to her, the duke crisply turned on a heel and stalked away down the deserted corridor.

A long and drawn-out exhale from Link turned her attention away from the departing nobleman. The icy mask had melted away to reveal worry and wariness that had the butterflies taking off in her stomach again. When the Hero remained in silent thought, however, Tanya looked down and mumbled guiltily, "I'm sorry, Link."

That seemed to grab his attention, for a moment later she felt his hands force her wringing hands to still. Surprised, she looked up to see him examining her intensely. The fierce protectiveness in those cerulean irises nearly unnerved her more than Aerian had—yet in a way that instead made her heart flutter and her throat dry. She swallowed self-consciously as the seconds lengthened. "L-Link?"

Blinking, the hero released her hands and stepped back, shaking his head wolfishly. "You don't have to apologize, Tanya. What just happened is not your fault." He pinned her with his gaze again, eyes still edged with that gleam of concern for her. "Are you alright?"

She nodded slowly. "Y-yeah, I think so." Wrapping her arms around herself in a subconscious gesture, she stared at the floor and murmured, "He was just… He was… Something about him felt…wrong."

"I know." Tanya lifted her head to look at him, expecting further explanation. The hero simply stared down the corridor for a few moments, his countenance unreadable once more.

"Would you like to go for a ride?" he at last blurted. When she didn't—couldn't—answer immediately, he turned back to her and hastily explained, "Zelda mentioned you'd been getting a little restless cooped up in—"

"Of course I'll go."

Silence blanketed the hallway again; this time it was Link's turn to watch her in surprise. Tanya could almost see the thought _'Well, that was easy'_ run across his mind before a small, crooked smile graced his lips. "Alright then." To her surprise, he offered his arm to her. "May I…?"

Unexpected warmth filled her chest, expelling the tightness she'd felt at her encounter with Aerian. Hesitantly walking to his side and slipping her arm through his, she shyly returned his smile and murmured gratefully, "Thank you."


	11. Revelo

**A/N: **This chapter. Took faaaaar too long in the making. O_o It is also incredibly long and there's a bit of exposition...yeah. Well, actually, it just feels long because it's exposition, haha. xD In truth, it's about half the length of previous chapters. Still. Definitely not an actiony chapter, juuust to warn you. Sorry anyone looking for that! I promise there will be more at least after the coming chapter (so, two chaps from now); there might even be some at the end of the next one, depending how it all plays out. ;) But we will get back to danger and adventuring after all this-for those of you who've read the old versions, you understand what's coming, for the most part.

Now, on with the show!

* * *

**Chapter 11: _Revelo_**

_Do not delay, my chosen, and withhold nothing._

Farore's words echoed like bells in his ear, his nerves still on fire from the supernatural encounter that had prompted his sudden search for Tanya and Vanessa. The irrepressible urge to carry out Her orders surged back to the front of his mind as Link cut through the halls toward his quarters with Tanya in tow, quelling the cold, angry fires that had ignited within him upon sight of Aerian. It was almost as if the tunnel vision of battle had fallen across his vision again, and nothing mattered more than completing his new mission.

Link didn't know quite how he did it, but five minutes later Tanya had agreed to invite Vanessa along on the ride; the hero rejoined her at the stable with the other warrior in tow ten more minutes after. Trying not to show his impatience to be away from the castle, he simply tossed a saddle on Epona and swung up on her back as Tanya finished bridling Katara and Vanessa hurried to tack up her massive white stallion, Seril.

He prayed to Nayru for patience as the trio picked up a trot through Castle Town, and Tanya and Vanessa engaged in pleasant conversation behind him.

'_Can we _please _just get to the forest already?'_

Once they had crossed the long drawbridge spanning the west fork of the Zora River where it split around the island of Hyrule Castle, the hero swiveled in his saddle to face the girls behind him. Without regard for where they were in their conversation, he interrupted mildly, "How about a good gallop to let these fine horses stretch out a bit?"

Vanessa and Tanya exchanged glances that clearly asked each other '_Where did that come from?'_ But then the spark of competition he knew too well flared in Vanessa's hazel eyes, and she grinned. "Shall we make it a race?"

A hint of sympathy prodded him at Tanya's '_Oh boy, here we go…'_ look, but Link couldn't resist the challenge. "First one to the edge of the Forest gets to hear a story?" he said slyly.

Her grin evoked images of dragon teeth in his mind. "You're on."

"Are you guys coming, or what?"

Surprised by Tanya's voice, Vanessa and Link looked around to find that their companion had quietly beaten them to the punch. Katara already stood at the crest of the next hill, pawing impatiently at the grass beneath her hooves; Link could almost hear the mare thinking, '_C'mon, what're we waiting for?'_

Laughing, Vanessa put her heels to Seril's flanks and the stallion leapt forward up the rise. The barest shift in her rider's weight sent Epona racing after them both, her large strides easily covering the distance as Katara wheeled around and took off. The three horses' hooves drummed like the growl of distant thunder against the earth, the blue roan leading with the stallion and blood-bay neck and neck close behind. Link felt a grin spread across his face like he hadn't felt since Goddesses-knew-when. For once he didn't try to suppress it as Epona whinnied happily, tossed her head, and lengthened her stride on a downhill, surging past Seril in an effort to catch Katara.

It had been far too long since he and his faithful steed had had a good run like this without some outside force provoking their flight. Closing his eyes contentedly, an old affection that had never been dulled by the centuries flooded his chest; Epona truly was one of a kind. Wild, barely tamed, yet attuned to his every _thought_, it seemed—

With a jolt as the mare swerved away from the suddenly-near tree-line, Link rocked back in his saddle to slow the charging mare. It took her a second longer than it should have, until he remembered these weren't his younger days and this the original dark palomino mare he had rescued from a small and captive Lon Lon Ranch.

Hiding the pain and sorrow of that loss from his face with practiced ease, he turned Epona around and guided her toward the edge of Farore's Forest where Tanya and Vanessa were reining in ahead of him. Despite his best efforts, though, the flash in Vanessa's eyes and her worried frown told him she had noticed.

"Looks like I'm telling a story," he greeted them with false cheer as Epona stopped a couple paces before the other two. The girls glanced at each other with hints of confusion, but he didn't give them a chance to contradict that. Suddenly serious, he dismounted and moved toward the trees, gesturing for them to follow and leave the horses.

Once inside the protective canopy, strengthening and protective magic flooded him through his Triforce. Lips twitching with a smile—the Goddess was protecting her Chosen as she did every time he stepped within the realm of Her power—he halted a hundred yards into the undergrowth where the Forest began to deepen.

"We should be protected from prying ears here," he explained to the trailing girls when they stopped a few steps away.

The hero turned in time to see them share glances again, beyond confusion to bewilderment now. Vanessa crossed her arms, shifting her weight and frowning deeply as hazel eyes pinned him accusingly. "What are we doing here, Link?"

Link sighed, looking away. Now that they were both right here, this seemed far more difficult than he had thought. Farore's presence swirled more strongly within him, steadying his resolve though he refused to look back at his audience again. Taking a steadying breath, he gestured toward the ground. "You…might want to have a seat for this." As they did so, albeit in a manner laced with wary curiosity, he explained, "I'm…trying to reconcile a few things that you two need to know."

He opened his mouth to continue, but just somehow couldn't force life into the words he needed. Fighting with himself, he grimaced and looked down at the ground to one side away from the impatient girls' expressions, rubbing the back of his neck in an old habit.

This was going to take a while.

'_Let's start with the least…personal bit to swallow…'_

Exhaling heavily, Link ran his hand once backwards through his hair and then plopped himself cross-legged on the lush grass in front of the girls. Still not looking at the pair, he began, "So, Tanya… What do you know about your pendant?"

Seeming surprised at the question, she blinked and then glanced away, fiddling with the aforementioned jewelry. "W-well… You and Zelda, apparently, gave it to me when I was little, and…you think it has something to do with the Triforce because it reacts to you and Zelda…" Suspicion and revelation lit her eyes when the girl looked up at him next, brows furrowed. "There's more, isn't there?"

Unable to hide the guilt in his eyes—though it was from more than this topic, where he had a perfectly good excuse—Link stared down at his fingers, playing idly with the long strands of grass. They were almost like horse teeth, tearing up the vegetation in bunches before gathering another clump together.

"Farore just confirmed my suspicions earlier this morning." He shook his head in rueful amusement. "It _would_ take divine intervention for us to figure this out…" Forcing himself to meet Tanya's eyes despite his hammering heart, he said, "That pendant is probably the most important if not only weapon we have against this new threat—whom She calls Amadeus.

"Apparently…he's Their brother." Holding up a finger to forestall their shocked exclamations and questions—or anything else—Link continued, "What that pendant is…is the fourth piece to the Triforce. It is the end-game, the checkmate, the final word, the last reserve of power. Recall that the Triforce in its entirety grants the deepest desire, the greatest wish of a person's heart, once all the pieces are brought together. But, theoretically, if someone were to have their wish granted the first time around, and then someone else were to gather the pieces again, it's possible someone could overturn the previous wish.

"That is what this—the Triforce of Virtue—is designed to prevent. The entirety of the Triforce's power, until now, was withheld to prevent any one person from completely destroying Hyrule or otherwise doing irreparable damage." His countenance was grim as he met Tanya and Vanessa's eyes separately, as if that alone would impress upon them the importance of this knowledge. "But with the new knowledge that Amadeus himself has now come onto the field of battle, apparently…the Goddesses deigned that it was time this final option was brought into play.

"According to Farore, Amadeus is the estranged brother of the Three, who was inadvertently left out of the creation process. Angered by his exclusion, he created the mirror world to Hyrule—Cerberus—and his lieutenant, Ganon. Fearful of attack against their new world, the Three then created an antithesis to Ganon."

Tanya's soft voice filled the sudden stillness. "You."

Unable to find anything to say—he was still coming to terms with that, himself—he simply nodded. Vanessa was the next to speak, voice harsh with uncertainty and doubt. "Okay, so there's a fourth piece to the Triforce. So…why am I here?"

That question was almost like a kick to the gut. Wincing and swallowing the fear that threatened to jump down his throat, he fought to regain the momentum he'd had. His fingers plucked faster at the grass; he had to consciously force them to still. "Well… The Triforce isn't the only thing I have to tell you about."

Tanya simply appeared confused, but Vanessa's eyes were narrowed in suspicion. "Does this have anything to do with me not being Labrynnian?" Taking Link's silence for an affirmative, she surged to her feet in one angry motion. "You _know _who my parents are, don't you? _You've known all along!_"

All the emotions he had been wrestling with, struggling to control, exploded in answer to her angry accusations. "It's not like I _wanted_ to keep it from you! Gods, Vanessa, if you _knew_ how hard this is for me to tell—"

"Don't give me that, Link," the girl hissed, eyes flaming and a rigid finger stabbed toward him. "I've trusted you. All this time we've known each other, and _I've __trusted__ you_ with—with _everything_. What makes you think you have the right to withhold _anything_, much less something of _this_ magnitude?"

"Stop, Vanessa."

His cold voice served to freeze her tirade in an instant. Her eyes sheened over with a film of horror he had hoped never to see in her gaze, and he was certain then that his expression was as frosty as he felt.

But Link was beyond anger at the moment.

"How _dare_ you think to know my motives for what I do or do not, what information I deign to give or omit. Have you ever had the weight of an entire world on your shoulders?" When her expression started to thaw from fear back into righteous anger, he snapped, "And I'm not talking about worrying whether or not you fail to retrieve the next key to a keep you've never seen to free the one great hope of all worlds from imprisonment. I'm talking about facing down Evil itself and being the last line of defense before the whole world falls into chaos and darkness and only an act of the Goddesses could possibly save Their creation.

"Try living with that for _four. Hundred. Years_. And then tell me that I was wrong to do what I've done."

Silence swallowed the clearing. Link hardly noticed, crystal-blue eyes boring angrily into shocked hazel eyes. Despite the fact that she was practically standing over him, the dominance his glare had over her might as well have had her groveling in the dirt.

"Are you done?"

Visibly swallowing, Vanessa averted her eyes and slowly sat on the grass again. Tanya offered her a sympathetic glance and a hand on her shoulder, but the other girl simply shrugged it off and scooted away from her. Frowning hurtfully, Tanya turned back to Link. "So…what now?"

Link exhaled, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. Once he'd had a moment to regain his composure and thoughts, he opened his eyes again and said, "You both know who Lord Adriel and Lady Mara were, correct?" Tanya nodded, and although Vanessa didn't move, Link already knew she did. Taking a breath and bracing himself for yet another outburst, he continued, "Tanya, you were not their only child…and they had not always lived in Hyrule. Their stay in Labrynna was short, but meaningful, for when they returned to Hyrule they would leave behind them a child destined to serve as a failsafe for the eventuality that the Hero of Time would at some point face a threat too great to handle alone."

Tanya's eyes widened in surprise as everything that had been said finally clicked, and she whipped her head around to stare at Vanessa. Trepidation gripped Link's stomach as silence slithered between the trio, waiting for someone to break the stalemate.

To his surprise, it was the Mistress of Light who did so.

"I'm…Tanya's older sister."

—

Wide awake, Tanya wandered through a labyrinth of dark hedges and wide, flower-packed courtyards carpeted in thick grass that reminded her of Farore's Forest. Despite being in the middle of a massive city, the gardens were wide open to the star-drenched sky in a way that gave the girl a feeling of being out in the middle of the plains.

Untouched. Carefree. Wild.

Alone.

She sighed, thoughts unfailingly returning to the conversation in the forest again. The energies that had been swirling through that clearing… Just remembering them almost made her stomach churn.

So much pain. So much mistrust.

'_Odd,'_ she mused, pausing before a merrily chirping fountain. '_Here I am, having once held just as much animosity toward Link when I first met him…and now, I feel like defending him. I'm sure one to talk about mistrust, aren't I?'_ Stepping up to the wide rim of a pool around the fountain, she stared sadly at her reflection and dipped a finger into the water. Ripples shattered through the image, distorting her face until she could no longer recognize it in the moonlight.

It was a fitting metaphor for how she felt right now.

The sound of stones shifting underfoot caught her ear. Tanya quickly looked up to see Link standing in the entrance to the next garden over, looking almost like he had been caught sneaking around.

"You can't sleep either, huh?" She watched as he shook his head briefly and slowly approached the opposite side of the fountain. Looking back into the pool, she idly flicked her fingers through the dark water. "Me neither." When he didn't say anything, the girl glanced up at him; he was staring across the distance at her, eyes seemingly locked on her hand.

Suddenly unnerved by his expression, she withdrew her hand and seated herself on the rim of the fountain, nervously twisting her fingers in the fabric of her pants to dry them. When she looked up again she was startled to find him only a few paces away, eyes troubled and aglow with moonlight.

'_The nocturnal wolf on the prowl'_ ghosted through her thoughts briefly.

They remained like that, almost frozen in a tableau, for an indefinite period of time before Link sighed heavily and walked over to settle on the stone beside her. Tanya watched him curiously while he stared out at the unseen horizon, the moon a sliver of illumination that limned the curves of his features.

"Are you…alright?"

Link's whisper sounded like a stone breaking glassy water. She raised an eyebrow at his general question and turned her gaze in the same direction as his, bracing her palms on the back edge of the wall on which they sat. "Depends what you're asking about, I guess."

The warrior glanced over at her briefly, then away again. After some hesitation, he rephrased, "Aerian… Did he…do anything? Weird? Out of the ordinary? …Untoward?

Perplexed by the sudden conversation starter, she studied him a few moments before answering. "Well… I mean, he _did_ kind of creep me out, and I felt uneasy, but…" Tanya shook her head. "I…don't think he did anything that really could constitute "untoward", or merit some sort of investigation." When he turned dubious, worried eyes on her, she smiled and put a hand on his upper arm reassuringly. "Really, Link, I'm fine. I appreciate the concern, though." Her smile fading, she turned his query on him: "What about you? You seem tense…"

He merely grunted noncommittally at first. Feeling slightly put off by his odd attitude, she removed her hand and laced her fingers together in her lap.

"What about…?" He waved vaguely at the pendant.

She couldn't help but chuckle; of all things, he was concerned about _that_? "Well, I guess it isn't every day you hear you're carrying around the fourth piece of a divine relic, but…" She shrugged. "Somehow…that doesn't bother me? As far as I'm concerned, right now, it's still the same necklace I've worn since I was four."

Link's troubled expression didn't go away as she had hoped, however. Staring at some point near her feet, he muttered, "H-how…how are you so _calm_?"

Another shrug. "I guess, after so many surprises already, I've just…gotten used to it? It's almost not worth lingering over anymore, or I'd end up sitting in a miserable bundle in my room all week until I probably died of starvation."

She had said it with humor, but something about it caused him to wince. After a few moments of silence, he glanced up at her and took a steadying breath. "There's…more to it." He rubbed the back of his neck—a regular nervous gesture, she had noticed. Exhaling, he began to explain.

"Farore…told me about the origin of my immortality." He took another breath; she was beginning to wonder about his state of mind with how on edge he was acting. "Apparently, in the interim period when my soul was waiting to be bonded to my body, Amadeus broke into the Goddesses' palace with the intent to destroy or warp me in some manner favorable to him. Farore found him in time…but not before he could place a curse of immortality on me, which would only break once Ganon was destroyed."

Link fell quiet as if pondering what that meant for the past four hundred years. Curious why he had told her this—and now instead of back in the forest—she queried, "So, that has…what, to do with the Triforce?"

That got another sigh, and then he buried his face in his hands, twisting his fingers through long golden bangs. She thought he might never answer for how long he stayed silent.

"Because, Tanya…you are the fourth Bearer—" He finally lifted his head to pin stormy, dangerous eyes on her. "—and you are also going to be immortal."

At first Tanya might have thought he was trying to pull a fast one on her, and he'd be laughing in a second. Except, those eyes… His eyes were the farthest thing from humorous. It almost scared her how many emotions she could see fighting for dominance inside him.

"W-what…what do you mean?"

He was still staring at her. "If we don't defeat this Amadeus—or Ganon—for good, you will also not age." Hesitation. "You…will face the same curse I have."

It finally clicked; her eyes went wide.

The Goddesses had created her with some very explicit purposes in mind. Bearer of the fourth piece, meant to defeat Ganon, live as long as that was necessary…

Yet there was one major difference between her and Link:

She wouldn't be alone.

"L-Link…"

The hero finally looked away. "I'm sorry, Tanya. If I could do anything to change your circumstances, I would. You…shouldn't be forced to live with this like I have."

Tanya barely had to think; she could have chosen to agree with him—but she also knew she could never do that. She shook her head emphatically and gripped his shoulder sternly.

"No, Link. You don't have to do that."

Link glanced back at her in surprise. She offered him a small smile. "You've done so much for me already. I… I want to help you. If this is my way to do that, so be it."

He shook his head disbelievingly. "Y-you don't understand, Tanya—how dark, how…lonely…this path gets." His voice quieted and cracked; he stared down at his hands. "If you knew…just how _painful_ it gets…"

Her hand instinctively tightened on his shoulder; she could hear the pain he was talking about in his voice. "But you forget, Link—I won't be alone like you were. I'll be alright. Even if it takes another hundred years or more to stop Amadeus and Ganon…I promise: I'll be there to see it through. To the end."

His hand covered his eyes, the web of his thumb braced across his brow. "Y-you're… You're trying to help…" He shook his head, his voice below a whisper. "D-don't…don't try."

That puzzled her. "W-what? Link, what're you _talking _about?"

And then his hand was a vice grip atop hers and his gaze met hers. She couldn't breathe for a moment. His eyes were like windows filled with bright blue flame that both ensnared her and revealed an array of indescribable emotions: sorrow, agony, rage; yet also, very faintly, hope, wonder, and…

Trust?

"L-Link…?"

He gave the slightest, most subtle shake of his head she'd seen yet. "Don't. Just…don't."

The clipped, overly clear pronunciation and the command itself only served to confuse and worry her further.

Shifting slightly to better face him, she pleaded, "Link, please, if there's something I can do—"

In the next second, almost before she knew it, he had planted his free hand behind her and cradled her cheek in the palm of the other, nearly looming over her so closely she could feel his breath on her face. Her heart skipped a beat before racing onward like a horse out of a starting gate. Anything she could have said quailed under his dangerous gaze.

And yet, deep beneath the surface, she could see some of the same confusion in him that she was feeling.

Drawing in an uneasy, shuddering breath, she gently reached out to run her fingers along his hairline. Her voice came out barely louder than a breath, almost as if she were afraid of shattering glass.

"Link, please…"

And then, like the lightest breeze, he was suddenly gone.

—

Not only his centuries'-old walls had crumbled.

His control—his _sanity_—was also failing.

The inner wolf he'd only felt a handful of times previously kept growling in his mind, prowling his dreams, feeding on the emotions of centuries and the confusion of the present.

And Link didn't like it. At all.

"What am I _doing_?" he mumbled to himself, head in his hands and fingers tangled in his bangs. The branches of the hedge at his back dug painfully into his skin—he had sat fairly far back against it—but he didn't care.

"What is _wrong_ with me?"

A breath of air where there should not have been preempted Midna's appearance out of his shadow. "_Well, that was…_interesting," she commented from behind his left ear. "_For once I'm not sure if I even really know what to say to that."_

Link's lip lifted in a snarl that was evident through his voice. "Go away, Midna."

She _hmm_'d slightly in false contemplation. "_I don't think so. This is becoming_ far _more interesting than I could have anticipated."_ He could hear the grin in her tone. "_Amazing what one can learn when one is as unnoticed as someone's own shadow, hm?"_

Anger howled within him again, but this time he fought it down. The hero was beginning to get tired of it, let alone the fact that he didn't feel like moving.

Or otherwise giving into the imp's attempt to get a rise out of him.

Resigning himself to her presence with a sigh, he demanded, "What do you want, Midna?"

"_Oh, who said I wanted anything? I'm getting enough entertainment out of _this _as it is,"_ she chuckled, swinging around from behind his shoulders to—probably—hover in front of him. "_Now you, on the other hand… _You _look like you could use some help."_ There was no mistaking the sympathy in her tone. "_And a _lot _of it."_

Again with the rage—the wolf came to the fore. "I don't need _anyone's_ help—" he snarled, glaring up at her, "—_least_ of all yours!"

Midna simply tutted and crossed her arms, shaking her head disappointedly. "_Wow, what a spectacle—I never thought I'd hear of it, let alone come to witness it myself. The so-called "great" Hero of Time, reduced to a snarling, sniveling huddle of nothing under a hedge refusing to ask for—or even _accept—_help_." Her smirk made his stomach twist into nervous knots somehow. "_All because one little girl has his wolfy hormones all in a tizzy."_

The wolf roared angrily; Link jumped to his feet as if to attack Midna, but simply clenched his hands when he remembered he couldn't physically harm the shadow. He settled for glaring daggers at her instead.

"What. Did. You. Say."

A wicked grin splayed across her face, showing her fang-like canine teeth. "_I _said_, your inner wolf is so gaga over Tanya, you can't keep your thoughts straight."_ At hearing the snarl he couldn't suppress in time, she grinned wider. "_I'm right! I'm_ right _and you know it, wolf-boy!"_ the imp crowed.

The surge of fury that nearly overwhelmed him turned his vision red—but then he froze and actually _thought_ about what she'd said.

Tanya… '_Do I…really…_love _her?'_ Something about that instantly flushed his cheeks with warmth. Looking down at his open palms, he recalled the scene he'd just experienced and the emotions that had coursed like fire through his veins.

"M-maybe it's just infatuation," he protested shakily, closing his fists.

Midna shook her head knowingly, but smiled indulgently at him. "_Well, there's only going to be one way to know, at this point."_ She grinned evilly when he blanched. "_You know what I mean, don't you?"_

Link suppressed a groan and, for once, managed to swallow his pride.

Tanya was going to need an escort to the ball tomorrow night. Zelda had been trying to talk him into it for the past few days. She had even had an outfit made up and a sword drawn from the Royal Armory.

And if it would get him answers…

He sighed. "Guess I'm going to the ball for the first time in a couple decades."

—

Tanya twisted awkwardly in front of the mirror, nervously smoothing the golden taffeta of her wide skirt. She had been uncertain about the design at first when Zelda and the head seamstress had been explaining it; but it had looked good on the mannequin, and the seamstress had assured her some modifications could be made to accommodate her particular tastes.

Now the final product stared back at her through the mirror, wide-eyed as an owl and far more perplexed.

"I never thought I'd ever do something like this," she commented to Zelda behind her. Pursing her lips and appraising her reflection, she complained, "I feel like a doll."

The princess chuckled at her pouting and walked up beside the girl, patting her on the shoulder comfortingly. "You look gorgeous. Don't worry too much about it and just have fun tonight, alright? You can really use the break," she said sympathetically.

Tanya thought immediately of the previous day's events, especially last night. It had been at the forefront of her thoughts on and off all day.

"We all can," the girl murmured in response.

Noticing her pensive look, Zelda leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "Link's coming to the ball tonight; I asked him to escort you." That immediately made Tanya tense, but if Zelda noticed she didn't show it. She simply patted her shoulder again and leaned away. "He's done this many a time, so he'll be able to walk you through it all. Just relax and try to enjoy yourself."

Before she could lose her nerve and regret saying it, Tanya blurted, "I'm not so sure it's such a good idea to have Link go with me."

She could see Zelda's raised eyebrow in the mirror. "Oh? If you're worried about the dancing, or making a fool of yourself—"

Tanya shook her head vigorously, the few free, curled locks of her bright red bangs gently tapping the sides of her face. Irritatedly tucking the flyaways behind her ears—only to have them spring free again—she stuttered, "N-no, no, it's…nothing like that." She paused and looked away from Zelda's expectant—_knowing_—gaze, struggling for words. Her fingers brushed over the pendant's surface of their own volition. "H-he… He…told me that the pendant is the fourth piece of the Triforce. And that I…I'm burdened with the same curse he is."

That actually registered with Zelda. A moment of shock passed across her face before she could school it into sympathy and second-hand melancholy—directed at Tanya this time.

And then realization and an expression she didn't like which she could only call "scheming" dawned on the princess' countenance.

She obviously chose her words carefully. "I would think he would have shown some measure of relief for the fact he'll no longer be alone, and that he can be there for you like no one could be for him."

Tanya finally turned from the mirror to face the monarch head-on. Despite herself, words just began to roll off her tongue. "That's…what I tried to tell Link. He was so torn up about it; said if he could, he would change my circumstances so I didn't have to go through what he did. That's when I pointed out that I wouldn't be alone like he had, and…" She trailed off, holding her white-gloved hands palms up and staring at them like they would have all the answers. "He…didn't seem to like that thought very much. Something about it just…set him off. He…said that I was trying to help, and that I shouldn't—that he didn't _want_ help."

Those eyes…

She shook her head, fighting to speak past a lump of frustration growing in her throat. "H-he—he…looked so…_hurt_, and confused." A swallow. "I just…want to see him _happy_, for once. He's hardly ever genuinely smiled since I've met him."

A tiny sound that Tanya soon pinpointed as a quiet chuckle made her look up in surprise at Zelda. The princess was smiling, although obviously trying to keep it under control. "You are certainly in a unique position to do that. And, it seems to me, you also care about him enough to work that kind of change." She allowed her smile to widen slightly. "I've already noticed a little thawing, actually. If you ask me, honestly, I think he cares about you more than he lets on, too."

Realizing what Zelda was implying, a quiet gasp passed Tanya's lips and her eyes widened. "W-wait, you mean—I don't—He really—I—I…" She could barely find words to express the sudden rush of emotions through her chest; her cheeks felt on fire. Feeling suddenly weak-kneed, she carefully sank into a nearby chair, one hand to her forehead.

Zelda's voice was soothing, but also strangely triumphant. "Well, it seems to me the only way to know for sure…"

Tanya gulped down the sudden burst of nervous butterflies fluttering into her throat from her stomach. She knew _exactly_ what Zelda meant.

One way or another, she would have to face Link eventually—sooner rather than later, as Zelda had implied.

Swallowing again, Tanya slowly stood and adjusted her skirts. The ball would be starting within the hour; it was time to be going.

It was time to face the music—and Link.


End file.
